


My Angelic Wish

by LestatDeSade



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, F/F, Multi, inaccurate use of religious ideas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-28
Updated: 2013-10-24
Packaged: 2017-12-13 05:32:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 25,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/820566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LestatDeSade/pseuds/LestatDeSade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Calliope is an angel sent from heaven to save the life of Roxy Lalonde, a girl with a heart of gold who is slowly poisoning herself to death. Can she save Roxy in time, or will her demonic twin push Roxy to suicide before Calliope gets the chance to earn her wings and save Roxy's life?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. a chance of a life time

**Author's Note:**

> This is a Calliope and Roxy shipping fic, with bits of Dirk/Caliborn, and Dirk/Roxy in there as well, but this is totally going to involve Roxy and Calliope getting together. I will warn for mentions of alcoholism, and Roxy's recovery will be treated very seriously, as the writer of this story has lost family to alcoholism and knows how horrible it can be to relive some of those time. Also the writer won't tolerate drunk Roxy jokes because of aforementioned reasons.

 

Angels in heaven have many jobs and purposes, but the most important job for an angel is to save a human's life. Humanity as a whole can't function without a working and functioning part. The main principle all angels agree upon is that every human life is important and sacred. Losing even one human being unfairly or unjustly is not to happen. They live to prevent and ease human suffering as much as possible. Some humans are fated to die painfully, and angels are assigned to save them whenever they can. Their resources are always spread too thin but they do the best they can. After all, even just saving a single human life means a world of difference to that one human being. Angels are creatures of goodness, and see all humans as important, no matter how big, small, or messed up they are. Angels intervene in human suffering through miracles, influence, and in the most desperate of times, in person. This is all done to promote happiness on a small scale, which in turn will produce global good will on a large scale. 

 

Calliope was beckoned to the head office of the most senior angel in heaven, which could only mean one of two things- she was either being praised for a job well done (very unlikely) or that she was in trouble (more likely). Calliope hatched from the egg as a darling little angel straight from the heavens itself. Her twin brother hatched from the same egg which they had shared, and sadly, his heart was already blackened and burnt before he had even fallen to hell. Caliborn was always destined to become the worst demon in hell, and Calliope was always destined to carry his foul reputation with her no matter where she went or how hard she tried to succeed. She was supposed to have her wings by now, but her progress faltered as all the better assignment and praise from the higher ups went to angel, who sadly, were not hatched from the same egg as evil itself. 

 

The hallways of heaven were a beautiful sight of glass work that reflected pale blue in the sun light of their bright, blue star. Many glass posts with hanging baskets of flowers were hung around heaven, and the angel academy, perhaps to ease the awful sight of the unbecoming angels themselves. Calliope did not notice her dark green, skull-like reflection in the glass because of the many flowers that bloomed around and obscured her view of it. The office of the higher ups was just as beautiful, with flowers growing out of inlets on the sparkling marble tileing and filling the floor like a rug of purple violets. 

 

“Calliope, I have good news for you,” the higher up sang to her melodiously, as was custom for angels to do in heaven. There was no speaking in heaven, there was only singing in soft, tempered voices. Behind the glass desk the angel sat at, large video panels showed the information specs of Calliopes case. She eagerly bore her clip board and pen, waiting at the ready to take notes. 

 

“You are being assigned to a case that requires a change in venue. You will go under cover as a human to save the life of a human being regarded as very important,” the higher up sang to Calliope.

 

Calliope was nearly shaking with excitement and her pens scribbled in bumpy circles as the higher up sang out her assignment. She was getting a real case! A real case! An undercover one, none the less! No paperwork or silly multiple choice tests! A real test of her goodness, and her faith in humanity! A case that was high stakes and truly dependent on her! She might even finally get the chance to earn herself a pair of wings if she does a really good at saving the life! This was the best chance she had gotten to better herself as an angel since Caliborn banished himself and she couldn't be any more happy or excited to start working. 

 

“This is Roxy Lalonde, she is seventeen years old and the child of a famous writer, Rose Lalonde. Roxy lives on her own with the financial help of her mother who otherwise is never there. She is what humans would call an angel. She is a human girl with a heart of gold but she plagued by a drinking problem that she has tried to solve but can not, and she currently does not have the support. She is drinking herself to death, Calliope. The prophets have spoken that Roxy Lalonde will perish soon if we do not save her ourselves. You must intervene in this girl's life and deliver from suffering so she may continue to benefit the human race with her goodness. I pray that we will not see her in heaven for a long time.”

 

Behind the angel, the back panel showed a picture of the human she would be caring for. The name said Roxy Lalonde. She was a blonde girl with pink eyes, which Calliope presumed to be a strange human fashion choice. She looked yellow and sickly, and was too skinny to be healthy. Calliope wondered how her legs could hold anything up with such fragile bones and without an exoskeleton of her own for backup support. Calliope noticed how, like herself, Roxy did not scream particularly beautiful. She could have been beautiful, perhaps if not the smudged eyeliner, drunken expression, or skin damaged by liver abuse. Roxy looked as if she was on the brink of death, and Calliope could see precisely why she was called in here. On the other panels, Calliope could see Roxy handing out food at the soup kitchen, restocking shelves at the food pantry and washing a stray kitten in the sink. Here, she could see why the higher ups believed Roxy Lalonde deserved to survive. 

 

Roxy Lalonde threw up in a trash can in an alleyway. Calliope didn't need to physically be there to smell the vomit and alcohol. Of course, they stuck her with a drunk. They believed enough in Calliope to know that she could handle a hard case, but they didn't like her enough to give her a case that would be pleasant to deal with. She was not getting the terminally ill children, who were darling in their own way and always warmed the heart of angels. She was being exposed to all sorts of unpleasantries that her other half probably reveled in. Still, Calliope responded to her case with a pleasant nod and quickly scampered off in her green tail coat to start doing some good, for the benefit of humanity, of course. 

 

 

 


	2. good deeds aren't easy

Calliope could see the reflection of her human form in the dirty puddle. She had pale, nearly white skin, white hair, and bright green eyes. It was so strange getting used to her fleshy face and pale, pink colored skin. She pressed her now clawless finger tips to her cheek and felt how squishy it was, instead of feeling her hard exoskeleton. She took the white wand out of her tail coat pocket and waved it. Now she was in normal human clothing, after all- it would have been outed immediately if she showed up to her protege wearing formal angel academy attire. She wore a dark green hoodie with her insignia of two snakes wrapping themselves around a silver spike on the side, and matching human denim pants. Calliope kept her gray oxfords, because they were comfortable. Around her head, she wore a red headband with a bow on it.

She looked more like a human now that she was dressed like one, but she had very little experience dealing with humans. Calliope's training in human communications class had gone over very well. There, they had angels taken on human forms and speak with them as if they were humans. Calliope had scored well, but they were still not real humans. Roxy was a real human. She was all kinds of soft and fragile. She was not an immortal that would understand just where she messed up in social interaction and why. To Roxy, any of Calliopes mistakes wouldn't be mistakes, she'd just be a strange, disturbing human. Calliope didn't want to be some weirdo human, she wanted to be a guardian angel, and she wanted to show everyone that she could do it well.

Calliope practiced walking with her small human female feet. How could anyone balance on such small things? She muttered to herself in a speaking voice, and found herself appalled by how normal human conversation sounded when she did it. She could hear Roxy cry and throw up in the alleyway but she was around a corner and did not notice Calliope was about to make her first big entrance as a human. While Roxy suffered with a enemy she knew well, Calliope had never been this nervous in her life! Calliope approached slowly and quietly, as she was told was custom for human women. Roxy did not look up at her and only directed her eyes towards her, with her cream colored and blood shot corneas. She did not have the strength to look at her.

"Pardon miss, but you appear as if in you're in need of help." Calliope talked, just like a human would. She did not even sound the slightest bit sing-song or angelic, she was doing this, she was truly making it happen.

"You english?" Roxy slurred out, and went to wipe the vomit off her mouth with her arms, but Calliope held out a white handkerchief with silver embroidery on the edges that matched the insignia on her hoodie. Calliope wouldn't allow for such a lack of hygienic being. The idea was revolting to her.

"Use this, please," Calliope said and Roxy used her handkerchief.

"Thankss... a lot. Who eva y'are," Roxy said.

"Perhaps we should return to your place of residence so you do not get injured out here in the cold." Calliope took Roxy by her arm, which thankfully, was clean and lifted her up. Roxy stumbled even when Calliope was trying to hold her up. She was so light and so fragile in her hands. Calliope wondered if this was because she was stronger than any human could be, or if because Roxy was truly that weak and sick. She could feel most of Roxy's bones through her thin white shirt and cropped pink denim vest.

"You are  _so_  british," Roxy laughed.

"I am many things, dear. Now where do you live?" Calliope asked.

"Some-" Roxy hiccuped, "Where, across town. And junk."

"Alright then, let's get you home," Calliope said as she pulled out her aPhone, and looked up Roxy's information, including the place of her residence. Roxy slumped over Calliope and passed out on her shoulder. Clearly, Roxy herself wasn't going to be much help in that area.

Calliope carried Roxy home while her phone sang out directions to Roxy's apartment that was across town, in the nice part of town and nowhere remotely near by any dive bars. It looked fairly upscale, though luckily there was no bellman there to question why Roxy was being carried home by a strange, british young woman. Roxy's mother paid for this, not Roxy. As Calliope carted Roxy up the stairs and to the fifteenth floor, she noticed that Roxy's apartment was in a state of apparent squalor. It was obvious that Roxy had several cats, despite the large size of the high rise that could hold them all, a litter box had not been adequately cleaned in a long time. Boxes of cat food and junk was spread all about the kitchen. It was now that Calliope believed the higher up still hated her just because of an unfortunate family name.

Roxy's bedroom was not clean, to the say the least. Strings and yarn were tangled in piles, dirty clothes were strewn about. The entire room stank of tepid alcohol, and Calliope could see leaking half empty bottles of vodka soaking up the carpet. Calliope brushed back the dirty comforter and laid Roxy into bed. She removed her denim vest and pulled the down comforter over her. Calliope positioned Roxy on her side so she would not suffocate in her sleep if she got sick while she slept. It looked like Calliope had a long night of hard work ahead of her and this would be the start of it.  _This was for the good of humanity_ , Calliope sang to herself in her mind.

Calliope got to work cleaning Roxy's bedroom. She figured that in the off case that Roxy has a premature weakening from her drunken slumber, it was best if she didn't wake up to the magic. Humans, as Calliope was told, tended to be more scared than impressed by the displays of magic. She picked u Roxy's clothes and piled them in a large stack. Roxy seemed to own clothes that were mostly pink or white, and most of them were badly stained and dirty. It looks like she hasn't bought anything recently, and that was most likely out of neglect rather than a lack of proper funding, since most of them looked like they could have been very nice if they were actually cleaned once in awhile. Roxy could have been pretty if she wasn't jaundiced and bothered washing up. The exasperated angel hand washed all of Roxy's clothes, save for the ones she was wearing in the sink. She made sure to remove all the stains by hand. Calliope took he curtains off the shower rod and hung the clothes over it. If this is how humans got things cleaned up, then Calliope was sure grateful to be an angel!

Calliope picked up and emptied what was left of the bottles in the sink, then put the glasses bottles into a bin she set aside for recycling. Calliope cleaned off the carpet with soap and a large scrub brush. Some of the stains could not be removed but she tried her very best. In those instances, she looked at Roxy, made sure she was sleeping, and did a quick swish of her wand to get rid of them. Calliope pet a black kitten on the head before it jumped into bed with Roxy. Then another five cats jumped onto Roxy's and surrounded her like a tribe of soft, cuddly cats. Calliope picked up the sixth cat, a blind cat without eyes and set him down on the pillow next to Roxy, it mewed in gratitude. So this was Roxy's family when her mother was gone, a pile of stray cats which Roxy had saved.

The kitchen was the next task. Calliope cleaned up the clutter on the floors and organized whatever was in the pantry. There was mostly cat food and cheap generic walmart brand snacks. The next plentiful commodity was alcohol, which Calliope poured down the sink and added the empty bottles to the recycling bin. She searched high and low in the apartment for more alcohol but Roxy was far from secretive with her drinking problem. The bottles were on the counter and in the pantry, but they were not hiding. Despite her young age, she made no attempt to make it a secret. Perhaps she might have in the past, but now she was too far gone to care about hiding it. Roxy's cellphone rang and Calliope picked up it up and hung it up quickly as to not wake her up. She would already be angry that Calliope threw out her vice, she did not need the added displeasure of being woken up too early with a hangover.

By the time Calliope was done cleaning up Roxy's apartment, it was one in the afternoon and the entire apartment looked spotless. It was just like the rooms in heaven, except with more cats. The rank stench was removed and in it's place, some soothing aromatherapy candles were lit. The purple and pink striped curtains were drawn back to let light into the apartment. Calliope even put a cute potted plant on the patio and replaced the broken lawn chairs with some nice white wicker one. The horrid trashpit pig's nest that was formerly known as Roxy's apartment had received a complete makeover. It was a small step in the right direction. Calliope knew that humans do not enjoy change, but changing a human's living arrangements can mean the world of a difference. Calliope sat on Roxy's patio and enjoyed a ice cold cold of lavender lemonade as she watched the humans in the city go about her little human business.

Dirk Strider was sitting at his desk working on repairing some laptop hard work. Five times he had called Roxy to wake her up, and each fucking time Roxy had answered him and immediately hang back up again. It was clear that she was avoiding him, and avoiding his well-meaning lectures. On his heavy metal work bench, sat a tall young demon with deeply tanned skin, long black hair, tall black horns and bat-like wings. He was modestly ripped, the tone of his muscles put Dirk's to shame. He bent over and looked at Dirk with his bright red eyes and eyelashes that were almost comically long for his face.

"Call her again, Dirk human," Caliborn laughed, "she really cares about you!"

"Fuck off Cal, I'm not in the mood to deal with your pestering."

"Well, I'm here to fuck shit up and I'm fucking your shit up," Caliborn said.

"I'm getting real tired of you following me around for no reason."

"As I have said before. Dirk. There is a reason! It is the best of reasons!"

"I highly doubt my relationship with Jake was high on Satan's list of things for you to fuck up," Dirk sighed. Caliborn was carefully inspecting him as if he were a piece of meat with his big, red eyes as he worked on a laptop he was fixing for Jane. She was a sorrowfully normal young lady, Dirk didn't know why she wanted to be friend with a gay boy with a robotic hermitage. Aside from the free computer fixes, but they were friends long before Jane knew he was good at fixing things, and she had traded him some tasty food in exchange.

"No, that was just a distraction. From my real goal."

"Lovely."

"Just wait until you see how bad. I am going to fuck up your life. You'll never see what I have in store for you!" Caliborn laughed, and he was shaking so hard with laughter at Dirk's misfortune that he nearly fell of Dirk's work bench. Dirk readjusted his work lamp so he could better see the parts of Jane's laptop.

"Whatever, man," Dirk said as he closed up Jane's laptop and flipped it right side up. He plugged the power adapter into the laptop and turned it on. It booted up fine, Dirk tested the image and sound card. Everything checked out as fixed up. Dirk turned the laptop back off and put it into Jane's laptop bag. He stood up and left his work bench.

"Hey. Where are you going?!" Caliborn shouted at him.

"Out."

"Fine. I won't miss you. Human jerk." Caliborn pouted when Dirk slammed the door as he left his apartment. He wasn't lonely. He was just bored.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for all the nice comments and kudos. :3


	3. angels aren't known for their tact

 Roxy awoke to a room that was too clean to be hers at three pm. She grimaced at the clock and was glad that today was her designated day off, probably why she drank so much last night. Mutini stared at her with her permanently closed eyes and Roxy kissed her on the head. Frigglish chirped at Roxy disturbed him from his place of sleep on her legs. Roxy noticed how her carpet was dry and completely devoid of all the clutter it had been in. Roxy knew she didn't clean this. She didn't remember last night, but she hadn't cleaned anything in a year so she knew this had to be someone else. The only point being is that Roxy had no idea who would even want to clean up for her, anyways. Her friends had either given up or treated her like she a burden and none of them would have been so kind as to do her laundry. Roxy's mother didn't even do Roxy's laundry, she couldn't think of a single person this nice.

The kitchen was cleaned, and the fridge was full, though Roxy noticed that all her liquor bottles were mysteriously absent. Jane would never do this, she was too busy crying over her and Jake's break up. Jake would never do this, he was to much of an idiot to even clean up his own apartment. Dirk would never do this, he rarely even left his hermitage that was two floors up in the same building. A small black kitten jumped on the counter and was now munching on kitty chow. Roxy hadn't even seen most of her counters since Rose left.

“Good morning, Roxy Lalonde,” said a girl with white hair who wore dark green clothes with gray oxford shoes. She held out her hand to shake Roxy's. Roxy slowly shook her hand and looked into her bright green eyes. She had never seen this girl before, or at least she didn't remember seeing her before. Roxy had no idea why she was in the house, but she could get to that later.

“Uh, did you... do this?” Roxy asked, sheepishly, looking around at the flawless apartment that looked like it could be from a magazine ad.  
  
“Yes I did.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“I'm your guardian angel!” Calliope beamed proudly. She took no time in getting to the point of her being here. She was a good angel who (mostly) didn't use her magic, she wanted the credit for doing so.

“What?”  
  
“I'm an angel sent from heaven to save your life,” Calliope said. “It is the greatest honor for an angel to receive an order from heaven to directly save the life of a human.”  
  
“Am I on tv?” Roxy asked. She looked at Calliope's hoodie and unzippled it, looking inside of the jacket for some kind of wire. She checked behind Calliope's ears for an earpiece and looked around the apartment for cameras. Yet Roxy saw nothing and it was so clean that any device would have stood out in plain sight.

“No, I am very serious, I even brought my wand,” Calliope said as she took the wand out of her pocket. It was about nine inches long, made of white opal stone and had a soft glow in Calliope's hand.  
  
“Wha? This some Harry Potter merch?” Roxy asked as she took Calliope's wand and held it in her wands. She felt around the smooth chunk of rock, looking for some kind of battery compartment or led lights. It was simply a smooth, seamless piece of rock that glowed without any proper mechanics to make it do so. Which according to Roxy's engineer buddy Dirk, was not a physically possible thing to happen.

“No, it is a real wand, would you like to see some magic?” Calliope asked.

“Ok.” Roxy said.

Calliope looked around Roxy's apartment and found Mutini, the blind black kitten. She was stuck in a corner and had no idea how to leave said corner. Calliope gently lifted her up into her arms like a baby and set her on the kitchen counter. Mutini mewed and Calliope pet her while Roxy stared at Calliope. Calliope took her wand from Roxy and tapped Mutini's head with the tip of her wand. The wand glowed slightly brighter for a few seconds before returning to it's regular glow. Mutini looked up Roxy with two golden eyes and blinked at her. Roxy looked at Calliope with an incredulous expression on her face. Mutie was abused horribly by the previous owner and had received an infection that put her on the short track to getting put to 'sleep' with her blindness. Roxy was her only hope to survive and now Mutie was seeing her mother for the first time.

“You just-”  
  
“I only do the pleasant kind of magic and I do not try to use it often. I did most of this cleaning the human way,” Calliope said.

“So why are you helping me? If you can cure the blind why aren't you out ding that? I ain't special or worth helping.”  
  
“I do as I am instructed to do by my superiors, and the morals if your queries aren't my place to answer.”  
  
“Why not? Why not help them? Why not save the suffering? I see people every day worse off than me and none of them even got a place to live. I don't see no angels taking them under their wings saving them and they need it.”  
  
“That is not a question I am capable of answering.”  
  
“Why not?”  
  
“Angels are glorified drones. We are hatched from the eggs of a queen and made to take orders. We are not human, we do not have your human philosophy, and we do not ask such questions.”

“So you just don't even ask?”  
  
“I do not ask questions or make a fuss. That is what demons do.”  
  
“So helping people worse off than me would make you bad?”  
  
“I do as I am told, and what I do helps humanity. I am happy being an angel. Our system is not perfect but I do the best I can with what opportunities I am given,” Calliope said. This question, as she knew, was an often asked question by humans. They were not like angels, they did not have the same mental set up as angels did and this type of moral situation was difficult to communicate with them. As often, morality is not the same between different species.

“Do demons do good things?”  
  
“At a price. Angels are free, but our resources are much more limited. My service will only benefit you. A demon would never help you with out a prior agenda. I have no agenda, I only have my duty to benefit humanity.”

“Did you rehearse this?”  
  
“Yes. I am following angel academy protocol. We are trained extensively to communicate with humans. This is my first time communicating with a human.”  
  
“You sound like my friend Jake when he moved here from the island.”  
  
“Excuse me?”  
  
“He was raised on an island and when he first came here we went out to eat and he tried getting his food order from the restaurant's kitchen. It was hilarious.”

“Is the joke here that human beings are often hired often to serve others in public eating establishments?”

“Yes, Calliope.”

“Alright then,” Calliope said calmly before laughing loudly for several minutes that Roxy spent looking at her with a concerned expression on her face.

“I apologize. I just find human comedy very funny.”

“I can see this,” Roxy said, “So now what?”  
  
“I am here to help you stop your drinking.”  
  
“Can't you just wave your wand at me and put me on the prohibition life style?”

“I could do that but that is not the point of why I am doing this. The point of this is to teach you how to recover the right and moral way, instead of using my magic. You would just go onto another bad habit if I tried that.”  
  
“What if I promised?”  
  
“No, Roxy. You have to do this the right way. I'm over here. A little ol' messenger from heaven to shine a lamp on your soul.”  


“But that's hard. Do you think I do this to myself 'cuz I never tried to get clean before?”

“And it will be over, you just have to take it one step at a time.”  
  
“Can I just have the magic.”  
  
“Not a chance in hell, Roxy.”  


Dirk Strider stopped in front of Roxy's apartment. It was his least favorite place to be. The entire place was a mess that not even a saint could manage to clean. The only cure for it would be to completely gut the place and set it on fire. He wanted to scream at Roxy to clean it, but the last time he did that, she just started crying and went straight to the bottle because it was the only way she knew how to cope with anything. He didn't bother to knock, and Roxy didn't bother to lock her door so it worked both ways. Dirk opened the door and instead of being bombarded with the smell of cat and alcohol, he was faced with the smell of lavender, a clean apartment and a girl he had never seen fixing Roxy a proper breakfast that wasn't dunkin donut take away.

“Is this Roxy Lalonde's place or did someone new move in?” Dirk asked. If he hadn't known Roxy his whole life, he would have sworn that this was someone else. He could not imagine what happened here. He also noticed that Roxy's blind cat, Mutini was now staring at him with big golden eyes. He'd notice Mutini anywhere, after all, he was there was Roxy found the poor thing. Wasn't she supposed to be blind? Weren't her eyes sewn shut?

“Yeah it is, I got some help from my friend here, Calliope,” Roxy said, pointing to the pale skinned girl who was flipping a pancake in the kitchen.  
  
“You look familiar,” Dirk said, looking at Calliope. There was something about her high cheekbones and the shape of her eyes, and her long eyelashes that stuck out at him.

“I apologize, but I am new to his area, so you must be mistaken. My name is Calliope, it is nice to meet you, Mr. Strider.”

“It's just Dirk,” Dirk said. He swore he heard the name Calliope before. It wasn't a common name, at least not around here.

“Whats with Mutie?” Dirk asked. Mutie mewed and purred as he scratched behind her ears. She recognized him for sure, but this time she wasn't recognizing him just by his scent anymore.

“She's just been feeling better,” Roxy explained. Dirk knew that permanently blinded cats who had their eyes removed didn't 'just get better'. He knew there was trouble a foot and by golly if he didn't know that because he already dealing with 'trouble' of his own. He didn't want Roxy in the same mess as he was in with Caliborn. She had enough metaphorical demons of her own, she didn't need to have a literal one added on top of that.  
  
“Roxy,” Dirk repeated.  
  
“Sit down and eat some fuckin' pancakes,” Roxy said, motioning to the fact that Calliope had prepared three short stacks for them to enjoy together.

“Roxy Lalonde.”  
  
“Dirk Strider.”  
  
“Roxanne Lalonde what the fuck is going on here? Did you sell your soul to the devil?” Dirk asked, his expression very serious.

“Yeah. You'd know a hell of a lot about that, wouldn't you, Dirk human?” asked a deep voice. Caliborn was standing in the door frame. Except, thankfully this time he bothered disguising his demonic features, and put a shirt on. 

  
  


 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. :3


	4. callie's first death threat

"Get out of here!" Calliope shouted, pointing her wand at Caliborn's throat. She has already gotten across the room to him before anyone could notice hat she was missing in the first place. Roxy gasped, she never thought of Calliope as the kind of person to threaten others. Caliborn was not the same as she last saw him. The last time Calliope saw him, he still marginally resembled an angel. Now, he looked like a fully blooded demon. Calliope could never forget his horrid tone of voice, or his awful smug attitude.

"Long time. No see," Caliborn said as he waved to Calliope. On his face was a sort of smug smirk hat showed of the large, pearly white fangs that he wasn't hiding with magic.

"I will not tolerate demons in this household! You will leave or I will take drastic measures and force you to leave!"

"You're much less of a hideous bitch. I remember having an ugly sister. You must need all kind of magics to cover that disgusting body of yours."

"Get out of here, Caliborn or so help you..." Calliope threatened. Her wand was glowing brightly now. Caliborn did not have any weapon on hand, and she couldn't care less.

"Ok, whats all this?" Roxy asked.

"That is Caliborn, he is one of the most violent demons in hell. There's nothing good about him, he only desires conquest and destruction."

"That is Calliope. The pathetic angel from heaven."

"Wow, Cal. I knew you had shitty twists in mind but having an angel as a sister is probably one of the lamest you've come up with so far," Dirk said, taking a bite of Calliope's pancakes. Which by the way, were totally delish. Seriously the best pancakes he's ever had in his life.

"You haven't even gotten your wings yet," Caliborn laughed.

"I'm damn near about to rip yours off if you don't get the fuck out."

"Is this your first time swearing?"

Calliope raised her wand and pointed it at Caliborn. A white flash was sent from her wand and Caliborn screamed loudly, backing far away from Roxy's apartment and down the hall. His nearly black colored blood dripped from his eyes, ears, and nose as he ran as far away as he could from the scene. Calliope pointed her wand at the door way of Roxy's apartment, which glowed for a few seconds before returning to it's normal not-glowing state. Both Roxy and Dirk sat there with shocked expressions on their faces. This is was not what they expected of an angel. Well, Roxy didn't know to expect but Dirk's ideas of what angels were did not fall under the category of screaming and hurting others.

"There will be no more demons coming here," Calliope said cheerfully. She smiled at Roxy and Dirk who were still looking at her funny.

"Are angels supposed to... do that?" Roxy asked.

"Our magic is meant for protection, purification, and healing. Banishing demons falls under all three of those goals."

"Is he hurt?" Dirk asked. Not out of concern, but out of curiosity.

"No, he should be fine in a few minutes, but if he ever comes near here again, he'll get sent away with another purification shock like that. My magic isn't strong enough to harm him. If it were a stronger angel, he would be dead."

"Angels kill others?"

"Angels only kill to protect. Caliborn has all intentions to harm humanity, and we angels are ordered to protect humanity. By killing Caliborn, we would have protected humanity from any harm he would cause in the future. Our morals are different than human ones."

"If you could kill Caliborn, would you?"

"Caliborn is a young, but very strong demon. Killing him has been a task of the angel society for several hundred years. With a demon like him, there's an official order for all angels with the power to murder, to kill him on sight."

"Why can't you kill him?"

"He's a time warping demon, and I am a space warping angel. We work opposite of one another," Calliope explained. "Trust me in my saying that if I could kill him, I would have done so before he even got the chance to fall from heaven and create the suffering that he has done."

"Wow, Callie. I never expected angels to be so... racist."

"It's not a matter of race. It is a matter of Caliborn being the cause of suffering and my oath to do my best to eliminate it."

"Do you know why he's here, other than the fact that he's a huge prick because I already have figured that out. He's been following me around and mooching off me for months."

"Did you contract?"

"No, thats his weird thing. He's all,  _'Dirk I want to play a game'_ , and I'm like  _'Go away, Caliborn'_  and he's like  _'No I have stuff to do'_  and I'm like,  _'I won't contract with you'_  and he's like,  _'I don't need you to human Dirk you are only a...'_  blah blah blah. It sounds like he just wants to be the worst room mate ever."

"So he's been hanging around you with no contract, and no intention of harming you?" Calliope asked. That didn't sound like Caliborn, at all. Caliborn isn't the kind of person to do anything that doesn't involve destruction.

"He made my boyfriend break up with me, but he said that was a fun little accident and not part of his real plan," Dirk said. Caliborn was a confusing addition to his life style. He was a demon but didn't really seem to do anything but be an irritating jackass. He really didn't understand why there was a fucking hit put out on his head. He was just another douche bag at his worst.

"Do you know what his real plan is?" Calliope asked. She was hoping that if she could contact one of her higher ups, that it would help them immensely at getting rid of him once and for all.

"Well, I highly doubt it has anything to do with me. Apparently, he just wants to sleep in my bed and bug me all day like one of Roxy's cats."

"Wow Dirk, sounds like you got a boyfriend," Roxy teased him.

"Shut up, Roxy."

"Dirk and Caliborn sittin' in a tree, B-O-N-E-R-S," Roxy sang out, snorting and laughing loudly as Dirk sat across the table from her with a stoic expression on his face. You didn't need to take off his sunglasses to see he was angry with her.

"Roxy that's not even how the song goes."

"Well, that  _is_  what demons do on occasion," Calliope said.

"What, get boners?" Roxy asked.

"Well, yes. But they also have a greater tendency than angels to get... attached to humans. Or to say, demons have a strange thing where it's not a social taboo for them to fall in love with and mate with humans," Calliope said, as she opened pandora's box of Roxy mocking Dirk.

"Dirk are you fucking Caliboner?"

"Roxy stop it with the boners," Dirk told her.

"I'll stop the boners if you will," Roxy said.

"I must add here that listening to people talk about my brothers genitalia is uncomfortable for me, even in jest," Calliope said.

"Sorry Callie. I will stop it with the boner jokes," Roxy apologized. Dirk was somewhat glad that Calliope was being a good influence on Roxy.

"But Dirk, you didn't actually fuck that guy, did you?"

"Uh..."

"Dirk Strider, did you fuck a demon?"

"I was on the rebound and he was hot."

"That was in exceptional bad taste," Calliope told Dirk. Aside from the fact that she was asexual and couldn't think of anyone having sex recreationally, the idea of someone begin desperate enough to spend enough time around Caliborn to initiate physical relations was almost unheard of. Caliborn was horrid to even be in the same room with, but to actually have sex with him? What a repulsive idea! One would have to have bad taste and be awfully stupid to do him.

"I didn't know he was a demon. What do you want me to do? Give every hot man who offers me sex a demon test? Want me to get out my little vial o' holy water and start swishin' that thing around like a wand-"

"Dirk, you've pulling a Dave," Roxy interrupted him. Without a stopped put on it, a Strider's long moments of hypothetical exposition could go on for hours. She just didn't want to expose Calliope to that.

"Whatever," Dirk said.

"Has he ever hurt you?" Calliope asked. Dirk wasn't wearing much, and she couldn't see any sign of bruising on him.

"Not intentionally. He just bugs the ever loving shit out of me and I don't know how to make him leave. He always comes back."

"Pardon me for asking, but do you think that the only reason he hasn't left you is because you both... enjoy each other's company?"

"Let's not be ridiculous," Dirk said, sipping on his lemonade. No he wasn't going to answer that question. The answer should have been obvious, he totally hated that guy.

"He totally does," Roxy whispered in Calliope's ear.

"Now that the issue of Caliborn is settled, what are we going to do now?"

"I don't know, I think I got the message. No more drinkin'."

"Roxy, we've told you no drinking for years. We're going to need a little more commitment than that."

"To be be fair Dirk, it's kind of a messenger from heaven thing going on. I think I understand that I need to stop if someone from the afterlife is telling me to."

"The path to recovery is much longer than you think it is. I was told to monitor your progress for several months," Calliope informed them. She was in fact, scheduled to stay there for at least a year or until Roxy could be proven sober and all underlying issues to her sobriety were fixed.

"Months?"

"Yes, Roxy. Months. Alcoholism is a serious problem and it takes a long time to fix it," Dirk added in.

"Aw, damn."

"Damn indeed, now that is settled I believe that human customary is to attend a clinic meant for alcoholics."

"Callie, no," Roxy said. There was no way she was getting sent to some campy, howdy-doody alcoholics anonymous meeting. No fucking way was she spending a few hours cooped up in the rec center with a bunch of middle aged winos.

"Roxy, you're going," Dirk said.

"Oh come on, I promised I wouldn't drink, what more do I need to do?"

"To actually do what you say you will!" Dirk yelled at her. Calliope blinked and stared at him.

"Perhaps, we should start with a visit to the human medical doctor."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I keep meaning to update this story on Saturday's but I guess I didn't remember to update it until one AM on Sunday... oh well, I think that's close enough to Saturday to count. I am trying hard not to neglect my fanfics but I am also in the middle of publishing one of my original novels, which takes up a lot of time and hard work.


	5. theres nothing but a void between us

After much persuasion from Dirk and Calliope, Roxy was finally in the waiting room. Persuasion of course meant one shouting match with Dirk that was refereed by Calliope. After this, Calliope picked up a shouting Roxy in one arm and a shouting Dirk in the other arm and carted them both out of the apartment. It was generally considered by the siblings that should they ever piss off Calliope, she could easily toss both of them out of the freaking window. Though, with their luck, Calliope's authority only needed to be enforced with a small smile. All three of them sat in the waiting room of the office in stiff chairs. Dirk was there for moral support, as neither Jane or Jake would be, and of course, Calliope wouldn't leave Roxy's side.

"Please be careful with Caliborn. I know he doesn't seem like much, but he is more dangerous than you can imagine," Calliope warned Dirk. She was not responsible for what would happen to him, but she felt a need as both an angel and both as someone unfortunately related to Caliborn to warn him. Messing around with demons was serious business, even if Dirk thought Caliborn was nothing more than a harmless annoyance.

"Calliope, I have it under control. The worse thing he's done all day is bug me. The only thing he ruined was my already far gone relationship with Jake, and let's be fair, that was on it's way out before Caliborn showed up."

"When... did he show up?"

"Caliborn and I met at a metal show I was doing pyrotech for. After the show we did some shots together and went back to my place to talk about light programming," Dirk explained. He left out the parts of the story where he taught Caliborn how explosives worked, and also left out the part of how long it took to explain anything to the guy. He yelled, and screamed and Dirk assumed Caliborn had a learning disorder way before the whole demon thing popped up. Unless he was a demon with a learning disorder, which frankly, sounded ridiculous. He's not sure why he didn't mention this fact to Calliope, maybe he wanted to protect Caliborn by not letting his weakness out. maybe she already knew about it, they were twins after all.

"And Caliborn has been following you around ever since?"

"Like a newborn kitten with it's mother," Dirk sighed.

"And he wants nothing of you?"

"Nothing except my orange soda and chips," Dirk said. He figured it would have been wrong to say 'and my plush rump' at the end of the sentence. But let's all be honest here, that was totally a part of their thing. Was Dirk calling a thing now? No, it's nothing. Not a thing at all.

"So you're saying that he's... your friend?"

"I guess. Caliborn is a pretty well known guy. He has his own crew of people in his band dedicated to his. Most people really wouldn't guess he was a supernatural monster dedicated to conquest, they all just assume he's another arrogant prick in a band."

"This appalls and disgusts me," Calliope admitted. She did not believe that this 'friendship' thing Caliborn had could be called a friendship. They were probably his minions and poor Dirk was too stubborn to notice it.

"Why?"

"In heaven, Caliborn and I were hatched from the same egg. We angels are drones told to obey all orders, and we are taught in the angelic academy, where all angels are taught to serve and better humanity. Upon our graduation, we are given our own sets of wings. However, all angels who fail to meet expectation or those who defy our creeds to be good are terminated. Caliborn was on the list for termination, but instead he was enlisted and stolen from the academy by Satan's own minions. Since then, he has trained to be one of the most powerful of the fallen angels."

"What exactly did he do to get... terminated?"

"Do you recall a human accident called the Heaven's Gate cult?"

"No."

"Nearly forty humans poisoned themselves believing that they would ascend to heaven through a comet. Do you know who put such idiotic idea into the head of the man who pushed so many people to an untimely death? Caliborn. He was assigned from heaven to save those people from suicide but instead, he just led them further into it, bringing as many people as he could to the grave.. That is what he does. He acts in ways you don't expect and he's killed thousands. Sure, he may look harmless to you Dirk, but he's going to, as he would say, pull a shitty twist and fuck up your life."

"Calliope-"

"Don't Calliope me, I will tell you nothing except the truth," Calliope said. Her tone was stern; she had nothing positive to say about Caliborn. She had no encouraging words for Dirk, she had no approval and no hope. She was obstinate in her beliefs, and she believed quite firmly, that Dirk should stay away from Caliborn. She didn't care how had he had changed. Once a murderer, always a murderer. She trusted no demons.

"Hey guys," Roxy said as she stopped their discussion short. "I'm ready to go home now."

"So, whats the diagnosis?" Dirk asked.

"I gotta' take some drugs. They don't know how bad my liver is yet," Roxy admitted. She would have to go back to get more tests but for now they gave her prescriptions for drugs that would make her withdrawal symptoms less intense.

"Are you going to tell Rose?" Dirk asked.

"I don't wanna' talk to her, I know she ain't helping me if she were around. She'd come here and she'd start drinkin' and I'd start drinkin' too," Roxy said. It was no secret that Rose Lalonde was not only a famous author, but a famous author who occasionally got drunk with Dave Strider at Hollywood parties and made an ass of herself in public.

"Oh good," Calliope said. "We certainly don't need any more triggers."

"They told me to go to AA, but I said I already had a sober buddy," Roxy said as she smiled at Calliope.

Jake English sat on a park bench and watched people go by. He was accompanied by an ice cold frozen coffee ad the condensation from his made his hands wet and slippery. In the park, there were trees but not enough to cover the city skylines, and the sounds of cars always covered up the sound of nature. Even here at night, it was impossible to hear the crickets or the birds chirp over the sounds of sleepless machinery. He missed his home where there was only grandma Jade and he could sleep outside at night and breathe in the air without feeling sick. Moving to the city was supposed to be good for him. Jade said he'd be happier and more confident if he lived like other college boys his age, if he moved out and got a place of his own. If this was so good for his health and confidence, then why did he feel so small and miserable?

"Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?" asked a man. Jake did not look up at him but only moved to the very edge of the park bench.

"No, I apologize for taking up so much space," Jake apologized. He kept his eyes focused on a caterpillar crawling on the hot asphalt.

He had tried his best to fit in with 'normal' society. He didn't bring his gun everywhere and for the most parts, he looked normal. Sure, occasionally people asked him why he wore cargo shorts, hiking boots and an utility belt in the city. The truth was that he didn't own anything else and never wanted to. He didn't want to wear polo shorts and the dreaded 'slacks'. Jade said she was so proud of him for moving here, and assured him that he would love it. He wondered if she was lying to him just to make him feel better about what she knew was an awful decision. He had rushed headfirst into this life style because he wanted to make Dirk happy, but then Dirk was cheating on him. Then he flew into Jane's arms out of sadness and she let him fall face first on the ground. She didn't want a boyfriend- she wanted to work on her career. Roxy could only put up with so much of Jake, she was too engulfed in her drinking to console any one.

"Where are you from, you don't seem like you're from here," the man asked. Jake looked over. He was tall, tan and has short black hair. He wore a fine black suit. Jake figured he was another business man, despite his young appearance.

"I'm from the Pacific. I lived with my grandmother on her island, I moved here to go to college," Jake explained. He sure didn't look like be belonged here, and he guessed that the way he felt on the inside matched how awkward and out of place he looked on the outside. Who the hell wear hiking boots in the city, anyways?

"Are you related to Jade English?" he asked. Jake noticed how long his eyelashes were. Was he wearing false eyelashes? What kind of business man wears false eyelashes?

"Yes, I'm studying computer science to, carry as her legacy, it would be seem."

Jake didn't know how to make friends. The rest of his class mates didn't like him very much. Going to school here was a mistake, he should have studied with Jade back home and work with her there. There were regulations everywhere that he didn't understand. People slacked off when he didn't, which gave him a worse name because he made them all look bad. Everyone talked about what a great idea goodie two shoes Jake English was. Grandson of the famous Jade English. He grew up privy to a privileged and isolated childhood, and nobody let him forget it. He wasn't a city boy, he was 'that boy from the island'. He hated his identity here. One day, he'd show them all, he's more than they think he could be. Jake English is not just a sheltered rich boy from an island.

"That is very noble of you," he said, "I could definitely use a guy like you at my company. You should give me a call if you don't mind being consulted." The man handed Jake his business card, which read out the name Caliborn without any sort of last name. He swore that he heard of that name before, but Jake couldn't figure where. He assumed the man was probably on television or some sort of business thing. It made sense.

"Thank you, I appreciate this very much," Jake said. Sure, he didn't have friends but he might just have landed himself a job. Maybe coming here wasn't such a bad thing for his future, after all.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading everyone! Hope to update next Saturday as well! <3


	6. no, this is not a metaphor

One of the most important things to consider when you are facing severe organ damage is to re-evaluate your diet. Which is why Calliope and Roxy were inside of the grocery store that was a short walk away from Roxy's apartment. Roxy only went here when the liquor store was closed because they really jacked up the prices on the booze here. She didn't know where anything else was. Dirk prepared her with a shopping list of health foods he ate for his sword training, and a long list of recipes he most likely compiled from fitness boards on the internet. They figured, if it was good enough for Mr. Picky guy with all his silly japanese swords, it was probably really healthy. Fruits, vegetables, fish, and some stuff Roxy and Calliope didn't know how to pronounce. What the hell was a kin-oh-wa and why did Dirk circle it red like it was super important?

"Roxy, have you considered talking to Dirk over his uh, relationship with Caliborn?" Calliope asked Roxy. Roxy was shopping in the produce section for endive, and Calliope was in the produce section, having to use her Aphone look up exactly what human endive looked like.

"It's not really my business to judge Dirk's relationship since I'm such a fuck up anyways."

"If you care about Dirk-"

"I'll let him make his own choices," Roxy said. What she didn't want to say is that Caliborn made Dirk happy and she was happy for him. Maybe Caliborn wasn't that bad, maybe he was just a jerky demon with a crappy band. Maybe he was dangerous but Dirk had been in a better mood ever since Caliborn showed up and Roxy wasn't about to start messing around with something that made her best friend happy. Dirk didn't get up in her business about picking up every cat that needed a home. Roxy wasn't about to chide him for dating some guy she didn't like, even if that guy was an asshole straight from the depth of hell. Or apparently, the not so straight depths of hell.

"I'm telling you it is a bad idea, but Dirk is not my responsibility," Calliope said.

"Found the endive!" Roxy cheered, holding up a head of red and white striated lettuce. she quickly bagged it as an overweight soccer mom pushing two children in an obnoxious red wagonscooter shopper cart glared at them.

"Excellent, now we have to figure out what arugula is..." Calliope said. And so, the frustration and confusion continued. Thank havens for technology.

Jane Crocker was now inheriting a huge business, and for a young girl that prospect was as terrifying as it was exciting. Indeed, she had always been the rightful heir to the Crockercorp, but her father shrugged the role to her grandmother in order to focus on bringing Jane up in a normal life. A normal life in a normal white house in the 'burbs, with a normal white picket fence and a normal white family life. There would be no corporate drones, there would only be wholesome family meals with her father. Yes, that was life Jane had grown used to, and it suited her well, but she wanted to be more than just a normal girl living the suburbs around town, only visiting the city to see her friends.

All of them were good at something. Roxy, when not inebriated, was a master hacker and gifted in math and physics. She was too smart to see the world around her and up a happy person afterwards. Jane knew she was sick, but envied Roxy's skill and big heart to match anyways. Dirk was was great at robotics, he could make anything. He also made some thing that Jane was sure surpassed the knowledge of even some of the top secret robotech knowledge of the US military. Jake was also good at nuclear science and studied with his grandmother on an island. He went to a big, important school with a big, important major with all his big important science friends that sure as hell weren't Jane. She couldn't feel connected to any of them anymore. She felt insignificant.

Gone were the days of little ol' normal Jane and her normal Jane life. She didn't have a famous author mom, or a famous actor dad who had rumors of an affair with aforementioned famous author mom. (And from looking at Roxy and Dirk side by side, you could see how the rumors started in the first place.) She didn't have a cool spinster grandmother who adventured by day and took the world by storm at night. But she had one thing that even her father didn't mention to her- she was heir to a fortune. Crocker fortune. Betty Crocker, that was her... or it could be her. If her father let his guard down for even a second, she'd run off to the city straight to her grandmother's apartment and beg to be taken in as her heir. Jane wanted to be famous. She wanted to be someone special. If she were Betty Crocker, she'd be real special. She wouldn't just be the one normal friend in a group of gifted kids. She would be some one everyone would be proud of. She'd be cool like them too, and maybe then they'd be proud of her for once instead of the other way around.

She'd be a Crocker, and not just Jane Crocker, either. She'd be Betty Crocker. She'd control an empire, and command the thousands who loved her cakes and other assorted baked goods. The Crocker Empire took a turn when Pop pop John Crocker sat it aside to the Batty Crocker- Jane's... grandmother? Or something. Shit, she wasn't quite sure who she was and she had only met her as a child and didn't remember any of those times. Her father always told her to keep away from Betty Crocker. She wasn't any good. She was a sneak. All Jane knew was that The only thing standing in the way between her and the legacy she was heir to was a cheap bus ticket away. Jane did not forsee the future that would involve overtaking an empire by force, or any of that other seedy business stuff. Her intentions were pure, all she wanted to do was to become connected to the family legacy, and what a sweet girl she was.

Caliborn was sitting at the bus station. Again, he wore he his human male business suit that made him look well put together and not at all like Caliborn. He didn't feel like concealing his long hair in a wig so he tied it back. Ah yes, he still looked human and not at demonic or threatening even when his hair was like this. He was on his way back to the city but before returning, he went to a small bakery Dirk had talked about, picked him up a couple cupcakes, and returned to the bus station. Of course he didn't come here all this way to get Dirk a gift. He came here to meet someone. At the bus station. And just sitting here for a few hours to go back exactly for once he came would have been awfully suspicious. If anything Dirk was doing him a favor by giving an alibi. So he could let out another part of his plot. Secretly.

Dirk did him so many favors and he didn't even know it. Dirk was the most valuable part of Caliborn's plan. Dirk was smart and handsome and talented and well liked, and Caliborn didn't mind being near him. He was sickened by the idea or prospects of friendship is every other context at every other possible time, but if it was Dirk, it became a slightly less unappealing idea. Caliborn would probably thank him for it later, in his own way. Rarely did the boons given to humans by demons seem all that helpful, but they would be some day. As long as Dirk kept his heart and mind open. Caliborn boarded the bus going back to the city, cakes in tow. The bus was packed.

"Excuse me, is any one sitting here?" a girl asked Caliborn as he scrolled through his smart phone. Caliborn looked up at her. She was pale skinned, had big blue eyes and short, black hair. She wore red framed glasses and fashionable yet conservative clothing. She was exactly who he was looking for. Way to be fashionably early for your arrival, Jane Crocker. But as a demon of time, Caliborn should've expected so.

"Not at all," Caliborn said patting the seat. He held out his hand. "My name is Caliborn, I work as a PR rep. It's nice to meet you."

"I'm Jane Crocker," Jane said, smiling and she shook his hand. He seemed like a nice and friendly business man. He was a like a young version of her father, who retired from the city to work at a smaller business in the suburbs. She wondered for a second that if everyone in the city was as friendly as Caliborn, she would have no trouble succeeding at her family business.

"Well, Jane, what are you coming to the city for?" Caliborn asked.

"I'm looking to become the next big thing, you could say," Jane said. Caliborn smiled and Jane assumed that he was happy for her enthusiasm. Caliborn was really smiling because goodness, his plan was all lined up for him like a crew of baby ducklings, and he'd be the evil stepmother duck to lead them off a cliff like lemmings. Caliborn was great at pretending to be a perfect gentleman.

"Now, that I can help you with," Caliborn said, smiling. "By the way, have you heard of the school of business and technology there? I know one of the admissions officer's and I'm sure they'd be happy to have a nice young lady like you in their program."

"I mostly wanted to visit my grandmother and ask her for help, but I figure that it couldn't hurt to have an extra leg up, right?" Jane said, thinking of Betty Crocker. They were halfway to the city and she was halfway from her home, and she still didn't really have much of a concrete plan laid out for herself.

"In a city like this, you pretty much have to sell your soul to get anywhere," Caliborn joked. Except that he wasn't really joking about it, per say. In this town, the soul selling was both literal and metaphorical.

"Well consider it sold, then," she laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! <3
> 
> Sorry I won't get to update or write anything this weekend since I'm going camping, so here's a Friday/ Thursday night update!


	7. the meaning of family

"Callie, please."

"No," Calliope said to Roxy, who was now pleading with her to go to Dirk's apartment and have a nice family dinner with them. This of course meant that she would not only have to be in the same room as Caliborn, but act agreeable with him as well. It wasn't happening. No siree, you're not getting Calliope to have dinner with a demon. She's a good angel and good angels do not pal around with his ilk. 

 

"Look, Dirk told me that Caliborn promised to behave himself. He's even wearing something that counts as a shirt."

"Oh yes, a shirt will completely change his carefree attitudes towards genocide!"

"Think about it this way, Dirk and I are like siblings, and we're family regardless of whatever blood isn't between us. Who knows, if you go you might see that there can be a little good in everyone, even your bastard murderer brother. I'm going because my brother is there and I want to see him happy."

"Fine, I will go," Callie said, "But only because you are going and I want you to be as safe as possible. I refuse to extend peace to monsters."

 

"Please don't kick his ass again, if he upsets you, we can use words." 

 

"My spells are words."

"Callie."

 

Roxy and Calliope headed over to Dirk's apartment, which was but a short walk away because Roxy and Dirk lived in the same apartment complex, just on different floors. Dirk's apartment was about the same size as Roxy's, both of them having large two bedroom apartments with no parents and a lot of free space. Callie opened the door, only to be greeted by Dirk, and not Caliborn, thankfully. She noticed that Dirk had a rather large collection of japanese swords... everywhere. Swords in umbrella holders, swords on the walls, and robots too. There was a little robot bunny cooking at the stove and she wasn't quite sure if human should have that kind of technology yet. 

 

"You seem to have a cadence for uh, weaponry," Calliope said, trying her best to make conversation. She didn't dislike Dirk, he seemed like a nice guy. She just thought he was a bumbling moron for dating Caliborn. 

 

"Hello Calliope," Caliborn said. Dirk wasn't not kidding when he said that he got Caliborn to put an actual shirt on. He was wearing an actual button up shirt, vest, and even a pair of suit pants. Kudos to Dirk Strider. 

 

"You really did get him to put clothes on," Calliope said. Color her impressed. 

"I can work my very own magic called forcing you two to get along," Dirk told her. Caliborn scowled but Dirk jabbed him between the ribs with his elbow. 

 

"Hey," Roxy said, "I helped."

 

"Yes, Roxy, you helped a lot. Now where is my salad?" Dirk asked. 

 

"I got your salad tossed right over here. It's a good thing you and Caliborn didn't toss the salad yourselves, or otherwise we couldn't eat it," Roxy joked. Calliope and Dirk glared at the tactless joke, but Caliborn was laughing loudly. He was hardly able to contain his laughter, in fact. 

 

"Roxy," Dirk said tersely. Okay, he was trying pretty hard not to laugh himself but Calliope thought all jokes involving demon sex were in bad taste and Dirk was trying to be less of a bad influence.

 

"I'm sorry. I ain't drunk or anythin' I just uh... bad joke," Roxy apologized. Dirk knew that she wasn't drunk, so Roxy had nothing to excuse her but her own lack of tact and poor timing. 

 

"Whatever, I have everything set up, so let's try to be peaceful and celebrate happier times in the future, alright?" Dirk asked. He looked directly at Calliope, not Roxy when he said it. The tension in this room was so thick not even one of his razorsharp katanas could cut through it. 

 

Roxy and Calliope sat on one side of the table, Dirk and Caliborn sat on the other. Calliope did not once take her eye's off Caliborn and constantly eyed him as thought he could attack and kill everyone in the room at any possible moment. Which he was more than capable of doing, but Caliborn did not want to kill them and that was the important part of this get together. He promised Dirk a nice peaceful dinner and he could do that just as easily as he could kill them. He said please and thank you and didn't swear, not even to say 'hell' or 'damn'. Dirk should be beaming with pride instead of sighing and constantly trying to break the strange silence between the two twins. 

 

"Calliope, would you please help me cut and serve the pie for dessert?" Caliborn asked. He said please, didn't call her a hideous, brutal bitch, and seriously, Dirk better be proud of him for this. Because he was mostly doing this because he wanted to make Dirk happy and show him that he could try and be more supportive in their relationship. 

 

"Of course," Calliope said, looking over her shoulder at Roxy who smiled at her. Goodness, Roxy wanted to do something kind for Calliope in exchange for all the help that Calliope had given her. She didn't have to. The kindness of an angel is for free, only a demon would ever ask for something in return. Still, it was better to not upset Caliborn than to upset Caliborn, for all their sakes. 

 

"I made this myself," Caliborn said. He reached into the refrigerator while Calliope fished out a knife and pie server from Dirk's kitchen drawers. 

 

"I have been trying to imitate human culture," Caliborn said. He set the glass pie tin on the counter and peeled of the aluminum foil that was covering it. It was a lovely black berry pie with a soft crust on top ... that was cut in the shape of an upside down pentagram with the head of a goat rested in it. Calliope frowned visibly while Caliborn smiled. That snide son of a bitch. If he could not insult her directly, this was another way he could do it. 

 

"You've gotten better at art," she said, trying to find a nice thing she could say about being served an item with such a disgusting, satanic symbol emblazoned upon it. 

 

"Thank you. I promise I really have been trying. I can also promise you that my plan will not come between you and Roxy."

"What is that comment supposed to mean?" Calliope asked, hoping that some mild questioning might help her base her suspicions more firmly in logic. 

"It means what I said. I will not harm Roxy," Caliborn said. 

 

"Then why follow her brother around? Why live so close?" Calliope narrowed her eyes and she sliced into the pie with the knife, the sounds of the knife hitting the glass pie tin made clinking noises, but she gently set each piece on a plate of it's own. 

"Maybe I'm in love with Dirk. Ever think about that?" Caliborn asked. Calliope never even considered it, as far as she was concerned demon didn't love anyone and Caliborn was a great actor. She carried two of the plates back to the table, Caliborn also carried two and they did not speak for the rest of the dinner. She didn't care how genuine it seemed when they smiled at each other and held hands under the table. Roxy may have fallen for it, but she certainly would not. 

 

"Hey Dirk," Roxy said, out of Calliope's line of sight, "I'm glad you found a guy you're really in love with. Just make sure he doesn't kill anyone okay?" 

 

"I will, Roxy," Dirk said. 

 

"Can I take this stupid fucking suit off now?" Caliborn asked. 

 

"It's your suit, why do you own if you hate wearing it?"

"It's a business suit. For conducting business."

"Is it demon business?" Dirk asked

"No, I'm running a fucking real estate company. It's fucking demon business, the hell else would I be doing?" 

  
"Not sure, but if it makes you feel better, I think you look fine as hell in that suit," Dirk said. He couldn't keep it in anymore, he just had to announce that his boyfriend, was in fact, the hottest guy in town and was also really good at baking. What more could Dirk ask for? 

"I know but I bet you like me better without it on, don't you?"

"You know it."

"I love you," Caliborn said. He meant it, he really did mean it. Thats why he totally just said it without Dirk asking or anything. It was genuine, not that anyone would believe him that what he was saying was truth. Except Dirk, but Dirk wasn't like anyone else he ever met before, which is Caliborn loved him in the first place. 

"Love you too, Caliborn." 

 

 

Roxy and Calliope sat together on Roxy's patio and looked up at the sky. The sun had just set but the people of the city below them went about their business in the artifice of street lights as if there were no difference between night and day at all. Roxy looked towards the stars and she wondered, if for a second, if everyone else had their own personal angel assigned to them. Roxy felt as thought they did and that she was one of the people people who managed to fuck it up bad enough that even the heavens would call down to her and say, 'roxy, you've had enough'. She wondered if Calliope thought of home and if she wanted to go back there. 

 

"Do you guys really live up there?" Roxy asked, pointing towards the stars. 

 

"Oh heavens no, we live on another dimension entirely. It's much easier to teleport between worlds than it is to travel such long distances," Calliope explained. The science behind it all just went over Roxy's head. She was smart, really smart, but human were just barely able to understand the idea of multiple dimensions, much less understand how to travel back and forth between them. 

"Ok, then," Roxy said. She nodded along and agreed with it, because wow, there was a lot more science in heaven than she thought there would be. Maybe it would be best if she died, then she might actually fit in somewhere. 

 

"You know, I am sure that Dirk is probably my brother like Caliborn is yours," Roxy said. 

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you see my mom ain't really the kind to supervise me or pay much attention. She's better at being a star than she is at bein' a mom, you know?"

"Our species hatches from eggs, Roxy."

"Sorry, okay maybe not know personally, but study humans know. She's never been that maternal and she has a problem with drinkin' like I do. Dirk's bro isn't really his bro he's like his dad but Dave is like my mom in that they never really planned on being parents and don't know what to do. They provide for us but most of the time, we were always left alone while Dave and my mom went out and had all these hollywood shindigs. I guess we came about when my mom got a little too drunk and y'know, her and Dave..."

"Sexually reproduced and twins were born. Yes Roxy, I am aware of how human reproduction works," Calliope said. 

 

"I guess that Dirk and I have always been there for each other. We're like this... island. Of people that stand up and help and love each other. We're family and well, I was hoping that maybe you and Caliborn, could be like us too."

 

"You were thinking that him and I could be friends? And care about each other?" Calliope asked. The thought had never occurred to her. Angels live to serve and to protect. Demons exist to create the chaos angels control. They live in opposite spectrum, forever clashing against each other. What Caliborn seeks to destroy, Calliope protects. What he burns, she heals. They exist as a complement to each other. They can never be friends. 

 

"Well yeah, thats what family does."

"Roxy, my species does not have such a concept, and be friendly with that demon, well, it's unthinkable for me to even consider him as part of me," Calliope said. 

"Your good intentions are wasted on someone like Caliborn, but I appreciate your kindness. You are perhaps even more caring of an angel than I." 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! <3
> 
>  
> 
> This chapter was written and edited in glorious ~notepad~, so please excuse any minor weirdness in formatting.


	8. you are my inspiration

"Let's go to a bar," Roxy suggested. 

 

"No," Calliope said. The expression on her face was grim and deadly serious as she turned to face Roxy. Roxy did not have to ask if she was unhappy with her for suggesting this or not. She was so pissed off it seemed a bit funny, Roxy had a smile on her face as Calliope's face turned bright red. 

"This is so irresponsible. The arch angel will have my skull over this," Calliope said. She sighed and kicked rocks as her and Roxy walked down to... a bar. How distasteful! How Callie had spent weeks and weeks helping Roxy not go to bars, and then she and Roxy go to a damned bar. 

 

She donned her tailcoat instead of her hoodie, and went with Roxy to the bar. Roxy was looking a wee bit of the stunning, as Calliope noticed. She decided to wear a pretty, casual, light pink chiffon dress that went down to her knees, pink booties with white heels, a pink rose in her hair, and a little white bolero jacket with pink bow detailing at the sides. Dirk had made that dress and so, it was Roxy's favorite dress to wear. She was just a little bit more than stunning to Calliope. Calliope thought she was beautiful like the sound of heaven's orchestra of trumpets, harps, organs and violins all playing together. She was beautiful like a meadow of white queen anne's lace and the feeling of silk between one's fingers. Calliope had never felt more hideous in appearance, even though her reflection said she took the form of a girl with silver hair and a cherubic face, she knew what she really was, and how Roxy would run away if she knew. 

 

"I haven't seen you here in awhile, Lalonde," the bar tender replied. She was a tall black girl with two long braids that hit around her knee caps, which were actually extensions as Roxy knew, but she promised not to tell anyone else that that. 

 

"Yeah, I got sober. Can I have a cranberry rickie, please?" Roxy asked the bartender who looked a bit flabberghasted when Roxy described herself as 'sober'.  

 

"I will have a lime rickey," Calliope said. she did not know what this 'ricky' was, but she would not let Roxy fool her into letting her drink, so she got a match to it, of course.  Calliope was not to let her vigilence down at any point in time.  The drinks were served in tall glasses with ice. Calliope's had a little lime slice on the rim of the glass. 

 

"It's soda water and fruit juice." Roxy told her. 

 

"Yes it is," Calliope said, sipping on her drink. It was most certainly not alcoholic. She could smell Roxy's drink and no, hers was the same. Simple fruit juice and soda water. Had it been anything else, she would have detected so immediately. 

 

The bar sucked, to put it lightly. Roxy remembered causally saying the night the night away with people that were good dancers. Instead she stood by the wall next to Calliope as drunken idiots smacked against each other and wiggled around in motions that could barely be described as 'dancing'. Roxy resigned herself to be embarrassed for all them since they clearly were too drunk to be embarrassed for themselves. Calliope could not even fathom the appeal in coming here, and honestly, neither did Roxy herself at this point. This was not she remembered it being like. 

 

"This is stupid," Roxy said, admitting to defeat. "You were right Callie, we probably shouldn't have come here."

 

Calliope and Roxy headed back to their apartment, Roxy sulking and feeling so stupid in the first place. She got dressed up, like she always did and did the same thing that she used to do. The only difference is that she wasn't drinking and Callie was there and Callie sure wasn't responsible for how lame that bar was. Could it be that everything that used to be great when she was drunk was suddenly fucking stupid and mediocre when she was sober? Mother of god, it was. Everything seemed better when she was drunk, even when it was stupid. She had been blinded by liquor the entire time. 

 

"You feeling alright?" Calliope asked as Roxy sulked on her patio and thought long and hard about her life of sobriety. Things sucked more now, but this is just how it would have to be. 

 

"I'm ok, I'm just thinkin' about stuff."

"Drinking stuff?"

"Yes, Callie, drinking stuff. I mean, I've felt better but y'know, I'm a little disappointed that the things I used to like now all seem like shit to me."

 

"It's ok, Roxy. We can find things that seem better for you," Calliope said. 

 

Roxy was sitting on a couch meant for two, the kind that had a decorative metal frame and okay but not too comfortable type of cushion on the bottom. Roxy had bought it on sale at the home depot. Calliope sat down next to her and almost instinctively Roxy laid her head on Calliope's shoulder. It was a platonic gesture of trust, and also of tiredness for Roxy was, very, very tired at his particular moment. Calliope stroked her soft, blonde hair that curled out at the ends and Roxy fell asleep with her head on Calliope's shoulder. She looked how humans believed angels looked, with a peaceful, serene expression. Her full lashes looked even fuller underneath the moon light. Roxy's skin had just the slightest tan and healthy glow to it. It was then and there that Calliope realized that she had fallen in love with Roxy. 

 

It hit her like a bag rocks in the face on idiot, basically. For weeks she had mused on about how proud she was of Roxy and how she loved to watch Roxy succeed and do well. Roxy's computer skills were truly marvelous and oh! How Calliope was almost inspired to live better as an angel for knowing her. Every time Roxy did something she did it with this amazing skill and grace which Calliope had not known in another human. How poised she was, how daring! When Calliope looked at her, she felt felt proud and perhaps a bit humbled by the brilliant sights, the intelligence, the fire and passion in everything that Roxy did. The light of her soul was brilliant, and Calliope, like a brain dead moth, could not bear to look away from it.

 

This was stupid. This was worse than stupid, it was suicidal, reckless, and irresponsible. Calliope had no business falling in love with a mortal! No angel had business doing such a thing! Love was as destructive of a force as mortals could have. Human quarrels over love, they killed over love, they sobbed, and fought, and pleaded over it as much as they benefited from it. An Angel would never fall in love with a human. Angels exist to help humans and falling in love with them does not help, it only makes for powerful arguments and biased attitudes later on. Calliope knew the rules. Respect your human. Never fall in love. Never think of it. To fall in love with a human is to bring their downfall. To engage in love with a human is to bring about your own death. Oh, how Calliope had known this, and how her heart, her black, loveless, angel heart, it did not care. It did not think of or want survival, it only called for Roxy. 

 

Oh, but how could she hide this from Roxy? Surely she must know that every time she speaks, Calliope hangs upon her every word as if it is the trumpet or archangel holding her for ransom. She looks upon Roxy as the devout look upon the icons of gods and the relics of the church. Dead god, she is so stupid. Roxy is but a mortal and in her misplaced affections, Calliope puts upon a throne of gold and enchantment. She loves her irrevocably and she is embarrassed to admit it to herself. Because if Roxy does not know that love for a mortal is fatal, she must surely be embarrassed  Calliope hopes that she will never find out. That all her observations are just inhuman weirdness. Should she ever ask... No, dear, it's just my angelic quirk! Never mind it! She curses herself a thousand times over in ancient tongues and curiously, a Frigglish walks over. 

 

"I'm sorry you had to hear such profane words," Calliope apologized to Frigglish who mewed in reply. It would be ok. Calliope would be forgotten as long as she gave Frigglish some treats before carrying Roxy and putting her to bed. 

 

"You poisoned me!" Calliope shouted at Caliborn. He was on Dirk's patio wearing nothing but exercise 'bike shorts' that barely even covered his ass and lifting weights. If you thought he got tanned and ripped by not doing anything- you're wrong. Caliborn, does in fact, spend a lot of time being a big strong guy with muscles. Being a big strong guy with muscles is like, Caliborn's favorite thing to do, ok? And he works mighty hard for it. These guns don't oil themselves up. 

 

"What?" Caliborn asked. 

 

"You... poisoned me! With your demonic filth!" 

 

"Okay, explain," Caliborn said. He set his weights aside on Dirk's patio and sat down on a lawn chair. He would put up with this bullshit, if only because he knew her false accusations of him poisoning her would be hilarious. 

"I fell in love with Roxy, or should I say was POISONED  by your awful debauchery  so now I am feeling love for a human!" 

"Or you know. you're in love with Roxy. No Magic involved in that. Occam's razor, bitch. You. Love. Roxy. I am a demon. You think I make people fall in love now?" Caliborn asked. The idea of a demon poisoning people with something positive like love was ridiculous. He was a demon, not friggin' cupid. 

 

"You would if you knew it would cause trouble!"

 

"Let me tell you a thing, you dumb bitch. Love is magical. It's fantastic. Loving a dude has been one of the best. No the best. Epxerience. Of my immortal life. Why the fuck would I give an ungrateful cunt like you love? I hate bitches. Why would I love the bitches?"

"To cause trouble!" Calliope stammered. 

 

"As if I couldn't find another way to make trouble!" 

 

"I-" Calliope said, holding out a finger and then dropping it. 

 

"You what?" Caliborn asked. She was really getting in his sun now. 

"I have been admonished," Calliope admitted. 

"No, you're in love with the human being whose life. You are supposed to be saving. What is that? Oh. Only one of the biggest angelic laws you could ever break. Ever. Tell me, bitch sister who chased from heaven- how does it feel. To know you're just like me. That you can feel. The same way that I do," Caliborn laughed in her face. Good. It was about time that she accept her fate and  fall from grace. 

 

"Not as bad as it should," Calliope shined. She fell to her knees and then her ass, and then she hugged her knees and started to cry. She was disgusting, she was debauched. It was not a fault of Caliborn. It was not a fault of Roxy. it was only her own debauchery and her own feral weakness that allowed some a grievous thing to take place. She mourned the fate of her own soul. She could never get her wings now. No matter how good she was, She'd always be unclean and unpure, forever raped by the existence of her own inclinations towards a romance that was unknown to her people. 

 

"Can you not do that? I'm not going to man up and be your brother after you accused me of poisoning you. Get the fuck out," Caliborn said. After all she's done to him, after all the times she's hated him, demeaned him, scorned him- she proves herself to be his twin after all. What a hypocrite. He's happy to see her suffering. Calliope wipe the tears away and left Dirk's apartment exactly as it was. Caliborn just couldn't wait to tell Dirk about their guest when he got home.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your readership, your patience, and your well wishes via kudos/comments! May your tea be sugared and your cookies buttery. :3


	9. nothing worth having comes easy

Jane was sitting in class and she wasn't paying attention. Her mind had drifted somewhere into the ear future as if she was some sort of time traveler. Or, perhaps, if Betty Crocker had produced a little red bow which you could send yourself into the future with, even just your own head. She was in her future, imagining what it would be like, and in this future, she had no appreciation or nostalgia from all the the time she sat in class. She was famous for what she liked doing the most- baking. People would look at her cakes and wish they were just like her. People would look at her cookies and be jealous they hadn't her baking skill. And they'd look at Jane, Jane Crocker, now 'Betty' Crocker, and they'd think, "I wish I could be just like her". Because that's always how Jane felt when she was Jane and looked at "Betty", except in the future, she'd be Betty and there  would be thousands of Jane's, all of them wanting to be just. Like. Her. 

 

Jane would climb the social ladder the way hikers climb other mountains. She'd study all night and go to class all day and to hell with sleep or eating or rest of any kind. Betty Crocker doesn't need rest, and since Jane Crocker is Betty Crocker (or will be, in the very near future), she doesn't need those things either. The only thing that keeps her running is this boundless, unimaginable ambition. It flows through her every cell of her singular replacing all the crannies where blood should be. This ambition was the force of conquerors and of martyrs. Jane's inability to give up or give in was both her best and her worst quality. This was her time to shine. She would be the next Betty Crocker and if she had to cut the throat of every woman in town, she'd do it. 

 

 

Jake has been spending a lot of time around his new business friend. He had misdialed Dirk's number and ended calling up his new park pal, Mr. Caliborn. Who didn't care that Jake was crying over Dirk, and he was such a nice guy that he and Jake met up somewhere and had a nice bro-chat about guy things. He was such a nice guy. He didn't even bring up the whole gay issue and only let Jake cry on his shoulder about his ex-boyfriend and his stupid asshole rockstar replacement. Jake sobbed because Dirk replaced him with some pretty boy who fit tall, dark, and handsome and was a bad boy who wore sunglasses and had his own gang. God damn it, he was a fullblown man and it was no wonder why Dirk left him for that sweet piece of man ass. Jake could never compare and he thought he might always be alone because he was a pathetic boy in a sea of men wouldn't didn't want a damn thing to do with him. Oh why did he call Dirk, anyways, he was such a fucking idiot. 

 

"You ever shoot a gun?" Caliborn asked him, oh his wonderful pal Caliborn had no idea what a marksman Jake was. 

 

"Have I? Well chap, I'll have you know I'm a fine shooter with type of gun you got."

"Want to go to the target range and practice shooting? It might help you... let out a bit of steam," Caliborn suggested, ruffling his short hair. God damn the wig was itchy, and the fact that Caliborn was stashing some long death metal locks under there didn't make it any better. he swore he could feel every bobby pin stabbing him in the head. It's a damn good thing Jake was too distraught to notice. 

 

Jake shot the human shaped target square between the eyes, causing Caliborn to laugh and make a comment Jake couldn't hear about how he shot great great for a guy in glasses. He wasn't paying attention. Right now, Jake was in his happy place. He was at home, on an island, shooting tin cans in the yard while his grandma watched and clapped. He was shooting. Round, after, round, After round. In the head. Lead pumped in and out again into paper. It felt good. It felt like escape. It felt like release. Every time a bullet launched out of the gun and hit the paper man in the face he felt just a little less angry and a little less hopeless. He wanted to escape this feeling and feel happy like like this forever. Forever immortalized in the sheer bliss off bang, bang, bang. This was better than having an actual life. Jake was going to show every one the man that was waiting to be seen inside of him, and if he had to sell his soul, he'd do it. 

 

Roxy was applying to jobs and she knew that no magic or soul selling was going to help her get ahead in life. She knew this because Calliope told her than anything that came easy wasn't worth getting at all, and she frowned when Roxy made a sexual joke out of that. Success was one little idea and a lot of hard work, and no Roxy, not that kind of hard. Stop laughing. Thats why she was here, at some computer repair shop downtown called Captors, which was a shitty name because it was just the surname of the owner, Sollux Captor, with an 's' added to the end of it. It looked pretty boring, but hey, so did every computer shop and Roxy was sure that once they knew how skilled she was, they wouldn't care which schools she got expelled from. 

 

"Hello, I'm Roxy LaLonde, I'm here to apply for a job. I spoke to Sollux Captor last night about it," she said politely. A guy in his late twenties who seemed just a little bit too distant was standing at the counter, looking at her with vacant eyes.

 

"Hey I see you have some rockan tits," Mituna said. 

 

"Thats my older brother, he's... Mituna." Sollux said. God damn it, Mituna was such a fuckin' embarassment. He'd never hired anyone because they all walked off about about thirty seconds of Mituna Captor's Stunning Example Of Long-term Mental Damage From Electrical Accidents. And Sollux, really, really needed the help. 

"Thats cool with me, I'm Roxy Lalonde, I'm here to apply for a position here."

"You can apply for a position between my legs!" Mituna yelled. 

 

"Hey, aren't you that blonde I saw getting like, totally wasted and throw up in the middle of a hacking seminar?" Sollux asked. Roxy winced at the fact that somebody remembered that particularly low point in her life. 

 

"I've gotten sober since then."

"You're hired as long as you can fix computers and won't call the police for sexual harassment," Sollux said, and he noticed Roxy's worried expression right away. 

 

"He has a spot of brain damage after getting into a nasty electrical accident, he can't hurt anyone, he just swears and says nasty things. He doesn't really mean or understand any of it. I just keep him here because he can't be left alone."

"I don't mind at all," Roxy said. 

 

"Seriously?," Sollux asked, "Not even enough to bribe me into a raise?"

"I don't do bribes, and I don't say bad things about people who are sick," Roxy explained. 

 

"What are you, some kind of angel?"

 

"No, but I have a cute one who always watches over me,"

 

Dirk was going to work on something today, because Caliborn left to do some 'demon business' last night and hadn't come home yet from whatever 'demon business' was. Dirk assumed he was eating people and was polite enough to not make Dirk come face to face with the reality that his boyfriend eats people. Or Dirk assumed thats what demons ate. He knew Caliborn liked eating human food, especially anything with sugar in it, but he had a feeling demons couldn't exist on cotton candy and stardust alone. Calliope was drinking tea and shaking on the couch, harping on in melodious tones that made Dirk homesick for the nerve-wracking staccato of Caliborn's voice. 

 

"What again, is the problem?"

 

"I love Roxy," Calliope sang. 

 

"I get that, but why is that a problem and why are you singing about it?"

"All angels sing instead of speaking to soften ourselves in heaven, I'm too sad to put on a human speaking voice." Her singing was beautiful and sorrowful. If this was an EP, people would clamor to hear it. 

 

"So why is loving Roxy a problem? I don't mean to pry, but she's a really nice girl and I think loving Roxy would be considered a great thing. I mean, as far as girlfriends go, you can't do much better,"

"Love is forbidden to my kind!" Calliope cried. Of course, she forgot to mention the death penalty was given to a loving angel. 

 

"Caliborn mentioned something like that once," Dirk said. Of course Caliborn said it in a very different manner but the over all idea was the same. Calliope and Caliborn spoke in vastly opposition partitions and biased viewpoints. If you took half of what they said and stuck it together, you'd end up with the truth. 

"Of course he did!" 

 

"Love is considered reckless and dangerous and angels are aromantic and asexual because we are only meant to heal. Love is a sword with no handle, it cuts you up and it cuts up the other person. You can't heal any one you love, because love is fleeting, and once its gone, Roxy will torn up worse than she was before. I can never love anyone, not even a little bit," Calliope cried. 

 

"Calliope, that is assbackwards and if you think that you can't love a person, let me tell you I see the way you two look at each other and hold hands when you think I'm looking. If you love the girl, then love the girl. Love is great, if you tried it instead of fearing it, you might like it."

 

"Well then, I might try it," Calliope said, with her voice quivering. it wasn't a very compelling show of bravery at all but Roxy was out looking for work. Calliope was sure by the time Roxy arrived back home that she would have finished perfected saying those three words. In human dialect, of course, no singing songs or anything like that. A very simple 'I love you' with no bells or whistles! She going to be direct and upfront and totally give her cultural customs the middle finger! 

 

"Callie, you're dripping tea on my carpet," Dirk pointed out. Her hands were shaking os much that tea was spilling everywhere. Curses. 

"Sorry, sorry," Calliope apologized. One step at a time! 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you for your readership and feedback! <3


	10. we could belong together

Rose Lalonde had the cellphone in her hand and found the contact in her list, though she always had Roxy on the speed dial for number one. She stared at the name, Roxy. Her daughter, according to the media, Dave's daughter. Roxy. The cute blonde who toned her hair platinum and curled it out so she looked like a movie star. A drunken movie star. Rose had a seventh glass of champagne in her hand and she knew that she'd never be able to help Roxy, because really, she had her own vice. The same vice, actually. She regretted ever leaving the alcohol out so carelessly. How could she expect it to go differently? She was never home, left it out, and Roxy had always watched her drink, so what else was Rose to expect? Rose's guilt had caused her to eclipse herself out of Roxy's life and hope the abstinence of her poor influence would improve it. She called Roxy, dialing one, to find it was on voicemail.

Roxy got home from work and turned on her cellphone. Callie was strangely absent, but Roxy noticed that someone had called her. Someone who wasn't Dirk had called her. Which was strange, really, since she didn't exactly have many friends left. Looking at the number, she knew it was her mother and she felt like someone had punched her. Calling her mother was like taking a trip down future lane, looking at herself in the future she could have had. An old cougar party girl hanging off Dave, insisting that they were always 'just friends'. She knows her mother would never stop drinking. Roxy knows how her mother will die, she doesn't know for when but when that phone rings at an odd hour, she always the suspicion, that there will be no more conversations. Roxy sighs and calls her back, the phone rings and she hope Rose will be alive to pick it up.

"Hello Roxy," Rose says. She's so good at covering up the slur. She makes things seems glamorous, even over the phone.

"Hi mom, I'm sorry for not picking up, I had my phone turned off because I was at work."

"I thought you weren't working."

"Well, I mean, I was unemployed awhile because of the drinking I used to do," Roxy explained. She doesn't hear Rose gasp.

"But I got sober and now I'm working at a computer repair shop, I think I might go back to school, and I might try going into physics and engineering instead of computers, I don't think they'd let me be a programmer after last time," Roxy explained.

"I'm happy to hear that," Rose says, her voice cracks at happy and she's about to cry. She doesn't know if she's going to cry because she's proud of Roxy or ashamed of herself for not being as strong as her prodigy.

"I'm coming to your town to speak at a business conference. The topic is about selfmade successes, and they asked to speak with me about Complacency," Rose said.

"Are you going to stay here or at a hotel?" Roxy asked.

"Hotel," Rose said. Roxy was relieved that she wouldn't have to explain the angel taking up residence in her home.

"Dave is also coming because they want him to speak," Rose told her. She could hear Roxy's noises of exasperated discontent.

"Roxy, I know things are hard between you two, but Dave is my support and well, he's special so please be kind to him as you are to Dirk," Rose said. Roxy hadn't liked Dave too much. She thought he was just a bad influence to her mother's drinking and poor behavior at public places.

"Really, because if quittin' is that hard, then your fuckup daughter wouldn't have been able to do it," Roxy said, and hung up. Roxy had always been the void to Rose's light. The dark little blemish in her celebrity mom's shining franchise. She was never Rose's shining glory, she was always the obstacle single author mom Rose Lalonde had to overcome to be the success she is.

Jake was sitting on his couch, crying. He had purchased some weaponry, but all of the illegally purchased firearms in this world couldn't cheer him up. He wanted to be back home on his island. Where the night was filled with the sounds of the forest, where the architecture was alive, where he'd sleep on the beach surrounded by warm palm trees and the rhythmic rushing of waves hitting the shore line. He wanted to be home. Being here made him miserable. He hated it here. He felt like this whole city would swallow him home and eat him whole, leaving nothing but a skeleton behind. He was terrified and alone, his only friend was that comforting business man. He didn't want to talk to anyone, because all his friend left him for being too bothersome, and even reached out for a hand, they'd call him selfish. But he needed the help he really needed it this time.

"No grandma, I don't want you to visit," Jake said.

"And why not?!" Jade protested.

"I'm really down on myself lately, and I, I don't want you to be seeing me all glum and poked out like a washed up ol' rag," Jake said.

"Jake, listen to me," Jade told her him, her voice was hard and strict, as if she were going to yell at him at any second, "I love you. I don't care if you're the saddest kid in the whole wide world, I am going to come over there, and when I get there we are going to have so much fun you will die, got it?"

"Yes, grandma, but right now I need to be alone..." Jake said.

"Nonsense, I'll surprise ya', so stay clear because Grandma English is coming to town." Jade said, besides, two of her dearest friends, Rose and Dave were going to Jake's city to speak soon and she wanted to visit them too. And there was always the matter of visiting her best friend's grave.

"Jane, you look dashing," Caliborn told her. Her hair was done up pin up style with a big bump and curled bangs with a blue headband. She wore a pretty white dress with vintage touches, and held a big, red spoon in one hand.

"Thanks, the stylist really went retro with the shoot," Jane said. She was the face of the 'new Betty Crocker'. She was the hip, retro-chic girl with winged eyeliner who can bake cakes so good they'd make some one slap their mom for another piece.

"And I'm the one who is going to make you famous," Caliborn told her.

Jane smiled. Caliborn was such a nice guy, he had helped her with the take over, the last CEO and figure heads crumpled underneath their influence even though they didn't try very hard. Jane felt so happy, she was the heiress, she was the queen. Everyone that tried to stop her just ended up crumbling beneath her feet, and well, if that didn't make her feel triumphant. If Jane wants it ,she has it. She has the admiration of many- she's a new self-made billionaire. Jane is the pretty black haired darling with a doll face, and the stone cold heart of a soul stealer. She isn't some tryhard girl from the suburbs, she'll cut a throat and mix the blood into a refreshing summer treat. She's going to make her debut and by heavens, she's going to marvelous.

"We make such a good team, I really appreciate your help," Jane told him. Caliborn snickered and his phone vibrated in his pocket. He glanced at the screen for a quick second before looking back at Jane with a sad look on his face.

"Sorry, but I have to leave, I have some other business attend to," Caliborn apologized. It was time that he checked up on Jake and stuck their plan in motion.

Calliope took a walk in the human park to clear her head, and stopped by the human lemonade stand to get a drink to clear her parched throat. She looked at her reflection in the fountain waters, the truth of her horrible appearance was reflected for her own eyes only. Never forget who you are, you're hideous, you angel. You have a heart of gold but the body of a beast. An angel doesn't need to be attractive, vanity will just distract you from your duties to serve humanity. Your beautiful soul with shine through. And since you're the most hideous cherub in existence, you probably also have the most beautiful and pure soul of them as well. You're not a pale faced human, you have fangs and bony claws that would tear up the cute dress you're wearing. Don't forget who you are, and where you come from.

Calliope realizes now that she and Roxy could be together. She can withstand the things the make her scared and she knows that it's not just about her love, but Roxy's love and that when they come together, that would mean something. So what if she's ugly, that doesn't mean Roxy still can't love her. So what if she's asexual, it doesn't matter. And if Calliope lives on even as Roxy perishes, then she still would have known that she could love. And really, so what if it's forbidden, it was a dumb idea to forbid something as beautiful and pure as love in the first place! She is ready to confess! She's going to keep it simple, choke down her fear, and say the word as clearly as possible without singing. Callie opens up the door to Roxy's apartment, her hand not quite as shaky as before.

"Callie!" Roxy cried, practically glomping Calliope before she could get through the door.

"Callie, I know I must sound all kinds of crazy, but I am done acting all scared, of my mom, and of my feelings. I don't wanna lie any more or think that my feelings ain't good to speak about," Roxy told her. Roxy was still clinging to Calliope.

"What?" Calliope asked.

"I love you," Roxy said.

"I love you too, Roxy."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! <3 If you are interested in the series Kuroshitsuji, please check out my other fics. If not, please wait patiently for new updates.
> 
> http://fav.me/d6kw8th
> 
> A WIP drawing of Angel Calliope.


	11. when i'm with you, anywhere can be paradise

"So, uh, what do we do now?" Roxy asked. There was the stunningly anticlimatic confession of love, mostly because Roxy knew Callie was too polite and demure to ever suggest it herself. Sure, Callie was obviously head over heels in love with Roxy, but she obviously wasn't going to do any first-move making. 

 

"I don't know. Angels are supposed to be aromantic creatures, love doesn't exist for us so I am charting new territory here," Calliope explained. She could have mentioned the automatic death penalty involved with human and angel relationships, but decided not to. This was a happy occasion. Let's keep it happy as can be. 

 

"I've never felt love, like real, good decision, equal love before, soo..."

 

"Then we can just make it up as we go along, ok?" Roxy asked. She and Calliope stared at each other, not knowing what to do next. But at least they didn't have to figure all of this out alone. However, Roxy already knew a guy who was more or less seasoned with the art of introducing supernatural creatures to the human ways of love. 

 

 

"Hey Dirk, what do you and Caliboner do on a date?" Roxy asked him as soon as Dirk answered the call. There was no 'sup bro?' there was only, 'hey how the fuck is this gonna' work'. 

"Do you want an honest answer or are you trying to come up with date ideas for you and Callie?" Dirk asked. 

"Dirk, I don't want to hear about your gay demonic sex life." 

 

"I have extra tickets to a metal fest tonight, it's a huge battle of the bands, and Caliborn's band is playing. Maybe you can go on a date there," Dirk suggested. It was a stupid suggestion, he wasn't entirely serious.  

 

"Yes, perfect," Roxy said. She did not think about whether or not an angel would go to a metal concert. She hung up and left Dirk thinking that maybe he might have just sabotaged their relationship. 

"Roxy, no," Calliope pleaded. There was no way, absolutely no way she was going to see any 'metal' band play, especially not one with Caliborn in it! Alright, sure, Calliope would own up that he wasn't so bad and maybe his inclinations to fall in love with humans weren't entirely for debased reasons, but he was still, and she would not let anyone forget this, a mass murderer. 

 

"Give it a try!" Roxy said. 

 

"Caliborn is evil," Calliope said. This was something of a mantra she's had her entire life. Calliope good. Caliborn bad. Okay, so some of the lines between good and bad have blurred but it was pretty obvious that Caliborn was still pretty awful. Y'know, mass murdering. Killing. No amount of cooking, no matter how good, could stop that!

 

"You look adorable in black," Roxy said. She always wore dark lipstick herself but Callie looked just as cute with black lipstick on. Hey, they were going to a metal concert and Roxy didn't want to disappoint Dirk by showing up in a pink floral dress. 

 

"Do not try to dissuade me," Calliope said. All of her issues with appearance aside, Calliope did think she looked rather, well, cute as a human girl. Maybe not cute like Roxy, because Calliope could literally sing out epic poems of Roxy's beauty, but not that bad. Calliope always assumed there had to be a less pretty girlfriend, and she didn't mind being it as long as it meant that she got to hold Roxy's hand. Which she was absolutely ecstatic about. 

 

"Think about it.... we're charting new seas of love, and adventure. I've never been, but who knows.. we could have like, the most amazing time. Open your mind Callie, to the human ways of courtship..." 

 

"Alright," Calliope said, though honestly, the both of them knew there wasn't any way in hell she could say no to Roxy. About anything. 

 

 

Callie and Roxy were dressed for metal fest.... whatever that meant. Calliope thought it meant wearing mostly black, and from what she could tell about the crowd that was pretty much true. Everyone here wore black, and some people splashed themselves with fake blood and wore shirts with satanic symbols and slogans on them that advocated demon worship. No wonder why Caliborn felt so at home with all the humans here. They just thought he was another human in costume, but Calliope knew better. Humans were doing what Calliope assumed was dancing by running and smashing into each other, occasionally swinging fists and kicking each other. She could really see why her superiors called humans a bunch of violent apes. This was no place for an angel and her spectacular paramour... this was a place for madmen. 

 

It smelled like open alcohol containers everywhere and that made Roxy a little bit nervous. It reeked of fetid, pisswater beer. Horrible cheap beer that Roxy kind of wanted a sip from, or maybe twenty sips. But in her mind she realized that she'd rather be drinking spring water with Calliope than drinking shitty beer with a bunch of metal heads. Dirk was walking towards them and Callie waved hi to a familair face. 

 

"Is that my leather vest?" he asked Roxy. 

 

"Yes it is," Roxy said. 

 

"So, uh, are you two enjoying the festival?" Dirk asked. 

 

"Why are these people dressed like satan worshippers?" Calliope asked. 

 

"Callie, that is what we earth human call being a goth, though most people just dress it up for the fes,t a lot of them consider that normal human clothing."

"So they're not demon worshippers?"

"Most humans, goths included, do not believe in demons or worship them at all."

"Fascinating."

 

"I gotta go do Caliborn's makeup because his shows coming up soon. If you see a stoned looking guy with horns and clown face paint, that's Gamzee and tell him that Caliborn said to get his worthless fucking face backstage or he's going to rape his skull with a knife," Dirk said.

 

"In those exact words?" Roxy said. 

"Yes."

 

"I'm not going to remember that," Roxy said to Calliope once Dirk was out of earshot. Calliope nodded in agreement, she didn't think a threat was suited for Roxy anyways. 

 

 

Caliborn was the lead singer of a band called JuJu Magics and The Felt, yes that was really the name of the band. It consisted of Caliborn as the lead vocalist, Gamzee as the lead guitarist, and a bunch of guys in green suits who use whatever instruments they felt like at the time known as 'the felt'. The audience could hear Caliborn screaming at Gamzee from behind the stage and they all thought it was the bands traditional comedic start up to a show. The truth was, Caliborn was completely serious. Calliope could hear him beat Gamzee with a metal folding chair and she knew it wasn't play acting for the audience to laugh at. She and Roxy cringed as a bunch of black clothed metalheads were completely entranced by him. This was clearly not a place where they could blend in easily. 

 

"Are you mother fucking ready to rock?!" Caliborn screamed, he didn't even need a mic. And if his screaming wasn't deafening on his own, the scream of the audience, mostly women, screaming back at him certainly was. Calliope and Roxy clamped their hands over their ears and the sound of an encroaching guitar solo from Gamzee made them certain that they were in for one awful first date. They held hands, and braced themselves for the worst. 

  
Caliborn, for what Roxy knew of metal, was not completely terrible and she could see why nearly all of the women and half of the men in audience were practically creaming themselves at his performance. A part of her knows that Dirk is watching Caliborn from behind the curtain so he can stare at his ass and look smug about the fact that he will be the only one tapping that tonight and that everyone else can go suck a fat one. That was Dirk Strider for you, Roxy wouldn't be shocked if he had stalked Caliborn for awhile and occasionally threw a smuppet at him as a wild courtship gesture. She shouldn't be laughing though, because she was the one who dragged an angel from heaven to a festival full of fake satan worshippers. 

 

"That was terrible," Roxy said. She did not like metal music. She had never really delved that deeply into it but now that she had, she decided that it was not a place worth visiting ever, ever again. Dirk had terrible taste in music, absolutely, ear-drum-shatteringly terrible taste. Roxy used to think that he was the classier of the two. No. 

 

"My ears are still ringing," Calliope replied. Her hands were no longer clamped over her ears but everything still had a distinctly muffled quality. She thought for a second that she might be going deaf.  Can immortal angels go deaf? Calliope wasn't sure but from what she heard, death metal might be one answer to that question and the other answer is "yes". 

 

"Hey, it's something new and now we both know that we hate metal and that your bro is actually good for something," Roxy told her. 

 

"I don't know if you can call that screaming 'good'," Calliope said. Admittedly, she may have enjoyed opera or maybe a side of classical. When it came to human music, she was picky, but she was sure even most humans would find that tone irritating. 

 

"Yeah I don't get metal either, but you know what I do get?"

 

"What?"

"Coffee, and the coffee will probably help our migraines too." 

 

"We're going to need all of the coffee on earth to get rid of my headache," Calliope said. 

 

The endless rancour of noise was far behind them and now it was just silent, dark streets. A few people walked past Roxy and Calliope hurriedly as they held hands and walked down the white concrete sidewalks together. Now that the worst was past them, this quiet, terribly planned date was looking like it was headed towards improvement land. It was nice to see the horrible clashing sign of a twenty four seven Denny's. Ah, Denny's. And since both Callie and Roxy were wearing black and lipstick, they looked just about right near the other goths that came here to sit down and drink coffee. The waitress just waved them to a booth because she was just as tired, if not more so than they were. 

 

"Can we please have two coffees?" Roxy said. 

 

"Of course," the waitress commented. Not of course, I'll get you your coffee. But of course, the two little goth girls come in here and order a coffee. Words are black and white on the page, but tone accounts for all those little bits of grey that you don't see.

 

Calliope has an expression of obvious contentment on her face, one that no angel should have. She looks a lot like less an overly prim pseudo-british supernatural creature from heaven and more like Calliope. Roxy isn't sure if she herself looks like Roxy because the Roxy everyone had known for the past few years had been a drunken mess with smudged lipstick who reeked of vodka and sucked at laundry. Now Roxy knew, not only how to do her laundry well, but also how to fold it. And iron it. She went to work and did stuff and Roxy spent so much time drinking that she didn't know who would be left sitting in the bathtub when all the gin poured down the drain. Calliope didn't know who what would be left of her personality when she threw all caution to the wind. But hey, atleast they don't have to figure this out on their own. 

 

"Do you think Dirk will be alright?" Calliope asked. 

 

"I'm pretty sure if your bro tries hitting him with a chair, it'll be the last chair Calibitch ever sees," Roxy said. Caliborn might have been a demon, but Dirk was Dirk Strider. He'd wreck Caliborn's shit before he even could figure out what his shit was. 

 

"You really like your portmanteaus today."

"He's like, the lamest excuse for a demon but you're also like Mary Poppins with magic so idk, I guess I always thought that if there was anything magic out there it would be a lot more intimidating than it is," Roxy admitted. 

 

"Well, I hate to sound arrogant here but my magic is much more than Mary Poppins, I just find it tacky to use magic for everything because using my own claws is much more satisfying," Calliope said. It was great that people these days were so apathetic, or otherwise people would really be staring at her. Roxy doesn't pick up on the fact that she says claws and Calliope is relieved. 

 

"Welp, if you ever get any anti-crazy guy magics, please come to work and knock some magic into Mituna," Roxy said. The nickname sugar tits was not a welcome addition to all the other things being said about her on a daily basis. 

 

"Oh dear," Calliope said.  When the waitress puts two coffees on the table, Calliope immediately runs for the container of sugar. 

 

"Also my mom might be meeting you soon soo..." 

"What should I say?"

"The truth, basically. Angel girlfriends and stuff."

"Will your mother believe me?" Calliope asks as she rips open packets of sugar, three at a time, and dumps an amount of nine sugar packets into her coffee. She tastes it, and adds nine more. Roxy thinks it is adorable when she leans over to the empty spot next to them to grab more sugar packets. This must have been the reason why Callie was so gosh darn sweet all the time. 

"My mother is so drunk she'll believe anything," Roxy said. She hadn't seen Rose sober in well, ever. She's never seen Rose without the slightest buzz. Calliope looked down trodden because she knew this was as simple as calling Rose blonde. 

 

"I hope things will go well," Calliope said. She wasn't sure what would happen from here on out, but hey, at least Roxy was here and smiling at her with a warm cup of shitty coffee in hand. And if things went sour, Calliope would be there for her. 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your readership and endless patience with me! <3
> 
> And if you do like hearing about gay demon sex, check out my kuroshitsuji fanfics!


	12. old friends

Jake English is in his apartment, dishes are piled up and dirty laundry and dirty everything makes the entire place look an episode of hoarders. If chronic hoarders were able to hoard guns, that is. He is stocked up like a cold war era armory and everything else has gone to the wayside. He pawned off his furniture, only leaving a sleeping bag. He needed guns and it's not like he slept anymore, anyways. He studied hard in school, practiced at the shooting range, and bought guns. It was great that his business partner, good ol' Caliborn, he didn't ask questions. If Jake asked for illegal firearms, he'd not only sell them to him, but at a deep discount. He was such a good guy for believing that Jake was nothing more than curious college student.

Caliborn didn't assume that Jake was going to kill everyone today, and that's what made him a good friend. he always listened to Jake and never called him selfish, or stupid. He listened with an open mind, one without judgement. Oh, Caliborn. Jake hopes that the police won't trace the guns back to him if Jake gets caught. He's a good guy, no wait, he's a great friend. Best friend. Jake feels like if he ever needs something, Caliborn is always there at the right time, he's almost like Jake's angel in a black business suit, always lending him a helping hand. God damn it, Caliborn is a great guy. Jake sincerely hopes he won't be offended once he figures out what he was going to do with these guns.

He's got two machines strapped to his back. The top pockets of his cargo parts have two semi-automatic pistols in them, the bottom pockets have two grenades and two smoke bombs. He carried a lighter in his back pocket and spare ammo is in a fanny pack. This mission is about being practical and carrying as much weaponry as possible. He is armed to the teeth. Jake swears a black hoodie and a face mask around his neck. He dons prescription sunglasses, practical combat boots, and a complete disregard for the sanctity of human life.

Roxy awakes to the clamoring noise of her cellphone loud ringtone. Next to her in bed is Calliope, sleeping soundly while cradling a cat in her arms. By goodness, does Calliope look so perfect sleeping there. On the nightstand is Roxy's cellphone, a pink bedazzled alarm clock, and Calliope's white magic wand. Roxy picks up the phone, and fumbles around with it for a bit. The caller ID says that it's from work, she picks up the phone with a grumbles that vaguely sounds like 'hello'.

"Roxy, can you come into work? There was some weird electrical explosion last night and we really need the extra help cleaning it up. Mituna is freaking out, and I'll pay you over time for it," Sollux bargained, clearly sounding panicked.

"Sure thing but I gotta' go to a speech my mom's putting on but I'll come in for awhile to help you," Roxy told him. She hung up the phone and got out of bed. She put on some decent clothes before waking up Calliope.

"Callie..."

"What?"

"I gotta' go stop at work really quick," Roxy explained. Calliope's short white hair was all ruffled, goddamn it she was cute, no pun intended.

"I'll walk with you," Calliope said, tone groggy.

"No, no, it's fine. You go back to sleep,"

"Nope. I'm up, I'm up," Calliope said, getting out of bed quickly. She was obviously half asleep, and mumbled about, tripping over stuff as she got dressed. By the time she was finished, she was more awake and ready to walk Roxy to work.

Rose and Dave pulled up to the cemetery in the shiny black rental car that more or less gave off the impression that they were a funeral procession. The fact that Rose was as goth as ever, decked out a black sheath dress with silk ruffle train, a black crochet lace shrug, and her signature black lipstick did not help. Dave just wore a nice red suit to off-set the ridiculousness that was Rose Lovecra- Lalonde. Other than that they were a fairly average couple there to visit their friend's gravesite. On the head stone it read  _"John Egbert, Comedian and Friend"_ , with a simple little engraving underneath the epitaph in the shape of a windy symbol.

"He would have been so proud of Jane," Rose said. Dave put his hand on her shoulder and looked at the final resting place of his best friend.

"I know."

"Oh piss off!" Jane yelled at the windshield as cars passed her on both sides. Fuck america and fuck them for driving on the wrong side of the road and at ten miles over a reasonable speed limit. She was now stuck in gridlock traffic of her own making and cursing loudly. She was glad that Jake was not here to see his grandmother shout like this. She banged her hands across the steering wheel, slamming on the brakes and landing within two millimeters of the car in front of her. The behind her slammed into the bumper of her rental.

"Fuck!" Jade shouted. One hour until the speech and she just got rear ended. Clearly, she was going to be for awhile.

"Thanks Roxy, I really mean it," Sollux said.

"No problemo," Roxy told him with a smile. Honestly it felt pretty nice to feel like she was needed somewhere. Besides, she had a whole extra forty five minutes to walk to the speech. She took out her cellphone and called Callie on speed dial,

"Hey Callie, I'm going to walk to the speech from Captor's place, I'll meet you there. Don't worry about comin' early, because I'll save you a seat. Love you too, bye!"

Roxy took a walk down the streets, admiring how everyone seemed to be going around their life so normally. People walked to work, from work, to wherever. They were all going about their busy lives and Roxy was happy to report that for once, she was one of these normal, responsible people. She wondered where Rose and Dave were, and if they'd even believe that she'd quit drinking. Never mind the whole angel and demon sibling rivalry she had been caught up in lately, the most unbelievable miracle had been Roxy Lalonde's vow of sobriety. Then she saw someone who had absolutely not fallen into the category of normal sane people. It was none other than everyone's least favorite self-centered douchebag.

"Hello Roxy!" Jake said, chipper as can be. Like he was totally fucking oblivious to the fact that Roxy hated him and did so with good reason. She wanted to kick him until he stopped breathing, but no, Roxy Lalonde was better than that.

"If I see you anywhere near my brother- I'll fuckin' throttle you, get it? You don't stare at him, you don't talk to him, you don't sit near him, you get me?" Roxy asked. Jake may not have feared modern police enforcement, but one sour look from those pink eyes had him fearing plenty.

"I don't mean-" Jake started out, but Roxy cut him off before he could explain that he didn't mean any harm. Any harm to Dirk that is, the rest of the attendants well...

"Stay. Away. From. Dirk." Roxy said, announcing each word before she hurried away from Jake English. She could get away from that selfish jerk fast enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your readership! <3


	13. you inspired me to be strong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last OFFICIAL CHAPTER. Don't worry, there's going to be an epilogue but I'm going to let ya'll think about this chapter for a couple of days and let it manifest in your minds before I post the short little wrap up. Thank you so much for reading My Angelic Wish! Roxy and Callie are one of my fave pairings and I'm really happy to see that other people ship them as much as I do. As always, I am always super excited when people read and like my stories and thank you so much for sticking with me until the end!

Dirk Strider is sleeping soundly in his apartment even though he is usually up two hours from now. He's not even dressed, he's only wearing his short boxers. The sunglasses it seems like he never takes off are by the nightstand. He has a queen size bed with a bright orange comforter over him even though it's probably just a little bit too warm for that right now. Caliborn is sitting on the bed and he can't face Dirk right now. He knows that Dirk is sleeping and that he won't be waking up, because when Dirk was sleeping Caliborn stuffed a bunch of sleeping pills down his throat. He probably wouldn't be awake until seven tonight, and by then, any damage Caliborn would have done will be over. Dirk will be safe here, and Caliborn knows he would never have stayed behind. Dirk wants to be hero but heroes get killed. That's why he fucked up the computer shop where Roxy works, knowing very well that she'd stay there helping all day. Dirk stays safe, Roxy stays safe, he fulfills all the promises he made to Dirk. He can suck up all the negative energy and he gets to stay with Dirk. Who said evil couldn't be efficient?

"I'm sorry," Caliborn said to a man who wouldn't hear him. He turned around to kiss Dirk quickly.

"I love you too much to let you get hurt because of me," he said as he resumed a more human looking countenance and headed home. He just had to watch it go down.

"Hey Jane," Dave says. Jane is getting ready for her speech. She has little red Betty Crocker customized notecards and is drinking some water before she has to go up. She's wearing a white vintage looking dress with the Crocker spoon logo embroidered on the wide, petticoat supported skirt. She blue eyes stand out underneath her red cat eye shaped glasses. Nobody has worn the Betty Crocker look as well as Jane has.

"Yes?"

"I know that it probably doesn't seem like much if I say it, but your grandfather was my best friend in this whole wide world. I just want to let you know that he would be so proud of you, and that Rose and I are too," Dave said. He was absent of all irony and Rose, may have even shed a small tear. They could see John's blue eyes reflected in Jane, it was almost like their comedian friend had never died at all. Rose and Dave wrapped their arms around Jane and gave her a tight hug.

"Thank you so much, I would've never been able to get here without people supporting me," Jane said.

Jane straightened her skirt and walked onto the stage. She had practiced this before so she knew what it felt like, but she also didn't practice it with so many people here. In the front row she could identify Roxy on one end, and Jake a few rows down from her. Jane had to control herself from scowling visibly at Jake being there, that cad. There were news crew taping her, executives examining her every word, and children of all ages here on a field trip because someone where along the line, someone thought Jane would be a good role model. Out of all these guests, she was most happy to see the small congregation of elementary school aged kids with their little cupcakes smiling happy as can be. It warmed her heart in the way that the drones from corporate just couldn't begin to understand.

"Thank you so much for coming. My name is Jane Crocker, though some of you might also call me Betty," she joked, smiling at the audience. They cheered either for her or the free Betty Crocker cupcakes, she didn't care which at this point.

"I am so happy to see so many people here, to hear Ms. Lalonde, Mr. Strider and myself speak. It is such a privilege to be here in this spot. For the longest time I had only lived in my own suburban area, and I had always dreamed of being Betty Crocker. If it wasn't for the help and encouragement of my friends at the college, and the people who believed in me, I wouldn't be here opening for you right now."

"This is the best feeling in the world and I want to tell you that from now on, I not only stand up here for myself, but for what I believe in and what I've worked hard towards. I want Betty Crocker to not just mean cupcakes, but to also be a connection between people. I don't want those of you to think of corporate empires, I want you to think of sharing a cake with your family. I want to bring in a new era of Betty Crocker that stands up for love." Jane said. The audience applauded. Jane's father in the third row stood up with his hat off and cried as he clapped for her.

She smiled, and stood still for just a second, unable to process the situation to was the best day of Jane's life. As she turned her back to retreat so that Rose could take the stage, gun shots were fired from the audience. People screamed and someone ducked down. Dave rushed forward to grab Jane by the arm and drag her behind the curtain as gun fire went off and hit the podium, and the stage. Rose stayed crouched as low as possible behind stage, and Jane and Dave joined her. They huddled up behind body guards that were yelling into their walkie talkies, demanding that the police get there right now- some crazy guy had machine guns and he was screaming that he was going to kill them all. Jane knew that it couldn't be anyone else but Jake as she cried into Rose and Dave.

Calliope was walking down the street, towards where the speech was taking place. She was almost there when she had this feeling like needles prickling on the back of her neck. She looked up and standing there on a roof top was nobody else but Caliborn. He stood on a rooftop across the street from the speech center. The center of course, was made so that the stage faced in the opposite direction from the street and the back windows were made from glass. If you stood at just the right place, as in where Caliborn was, you could watch the speeches. His black, bat-like wings were unfurled and he stood there in full demonic form. He was obviously using magic to prevent the human around from noticing anything remotely supernatural.

"I think you should watch Jane's speech from here, she's going on in a few minutes," he said, with a smirk and within seconds, Calliope was standing on the roof next to him. The humans around them were unaware of what was happening, but Calliope knew- where there were thousands of humans gathered, Caliborn was there to have them die.

"Caliborn," Calliope said, spitting it out as though it was the worst curse one could ever utter. "You will stop this before it begins!"

"No can do, bitch. I have my little friend Jake. Right now he's under quite the powerful control spell. I think he might even be a better killer than good ol' Applewhite. An antisocial twenty something is a bit of a cliche in the murder world. Killing children. Killing the most famous woman author and director couple. Killing my little liege Jane. Oh, Jake my boy has such a grand future in store for him. He fell into my plan so willingly. He wanted everyone to take him seriously as a man, too bad humans always mistake bloodshed for seriousness."

"You will unhand him this instant!"

"What the fuck can you do to stop me?" Caliborn laughed. Calliope had her white magic wand out and it was glowing and pointed in his direction. It was well, the least intimidating thing he'd ever seen before.

"I'll kill you," Calliope said. Angels were never supposed to think of murder but when it came to Caliborn, she didn't care about what she was supposed to think. Roxy was in there and when it came down to it, Roxy was her everything. She would kill to protect Roxy, maybe thats what it was forbidden to live in the first place.

"Every human dies eventually," Caliborn said. Even the one human he loved would die. It's really what humans are the best at.

"I will never let you hurt Roxy!"

"Don't worry, I saved your bitch for you. I fucked up the place where Dirk said she works. She's probably over there right now."

"She's in there!" Calliope screamed, her green eyes were full of tears. She could see Roxy sitting there with her supernatural vision. Roxy was there in the front row. Calliope could save Roxy from herself but she couldn't save her from this.

"Oh. I tried. I don't care about Roxy. She ain't my plan. Jane was the sacrifice. I made her a fucking star. She has everything to lose. When she dies, her energy will be a feast. Jake has nothing to lose so that made it so. Easy. He'll kill anyone. Children. Roxy. The bloodshed will keep me alive for eons!"

Jade was now on the shoulder of the road, waiting for the police to arrive. She turned up the radio, after fiddling around with it for a little bit. The city's local radio station was now blaring traffic reports. Not that Jade needed it, she could see right now what it was- shitty. It was back to back and she was still waiting for the police to arrive, and do whatever it was they did in america so she could go her friends' speech.

"This just in, a man sets open fire on women and children during the Betty Crocker speech. A man in the audience has opened machine gun and pistol fire on the crowd. I repeat, a man has just opened fire on the audience. The police are approaching the scene with a bomb squad. Do not go near that building and please obey all police blockades until this mad man can be stopped."

Jade is instantly overcome with guilt when she hears this. She is afraid for her friends and her grandson. She just wants to cry, but she knows that she taught jake well and that he would probably know what safety precautions to take. Jade is worried sick about Jake and she feels as though she should haven ever let them move here. He was out there, all alone with a gun or common sense to protect him. She wanted him to move here so he could atleast take the time to be a normal young man but maybe Jade was wrong. Maybe Jake would have been happier to stay back home.

"You all have shamed me!" Jake screams. Nobody gets up to move, everyone is ducked behind their chair, cradling their heads. The children in the front row can barely understand what is happening but they are still crying.

"Nobody survives. We are all disgusting. We all deserve to die, even you, chap!" he says, pointing his pistol at a small boy. The kid sniffles. He doesn't really understand death but now he's starting to get the picture.

"Stop it," Roxy said. She got in between Jake's gun and the group of huddled children. She was not going to move.

"Excuse me, miss Roxy?" Jake asks, he was hilariously polite for an armed madman. Roxy was not impressed with his sudden terms of chilvalry.

"I said- stop it. You're not some big man with a gun, you're just a coward," Roxy said. Jake shot off a single shot with his pistol at the children, but Roxy ducked down in just enough time to shield them from the bullet. She coughed, still slumped over the small bodies like a human shield. The children underneather her trembled as

"You will not kill Roxy," Calliope said. She didn't know what she could do. Her wand was at the ready but she had no spells that could back her up from Caliborn. Caliborn was stronger than her and she knows that he could kill her any time he wants. He's just fucking around because he doesn't deem Calliope enough of a threat to kill her immediately.

"At least she'll get a death that is worthy to make you proud," Caliborn laughed. Isn't that what angels want, for humans to die like heroes, all pure and virtuous instead of happy and debauched?

"I could kill you!" Calliope threatened. Her wand was dropped and her magic had faded away. She stood there as an angel, all green skin stretched over bone, long, pointed talons and piercing lime green eyes. She didn't need to use a wand to channel her magic, it radiated from her like a shield of blinding, white-hot fury.

"What do you have that all the arch angels don't?" Caliborn said.

Calliope has nothing. She has no wings, and no power. She could never break the hold he has over Jake's shes too weak of an angel to do it. Not even the big cahuna archangels could do it, Caliborn was unstoppable. Human violence was unstoppable, vice was the only true law, and Calliope was a lawless angel with no promise of success. Somehow, none of that seems to actually mean anything to her. She doesn't care that she's weaker than Caliborn, she does not care about the rules. Nothing else matters to her, she only wants to keep Roxy alive. She just wants all of this to end and she would give up anything, even her own life, to protect Roxy.

"Roxy," Calliope says. Three sets of white wings unfurl from their back and wrap around her back Her claws are bearing down on Caliborn's neck as she radiates white light that dissolves everything around them into nothingness.


	14. epilogue

Calliope sat on the roof top. She had wings just a second ago. Everything was all glowing and magical and she felt like she had drained every bit of black energy from Caliborn's soul... and now she was sitting on her ass in her human form. Her wand was gone, her a-phone was gone. She just sat here... being Calliope. Caliborn was face down on the ground, also in his human form. He groaned and crawled to his knees, looking like he had just woken up from a painful hangover. He was covered in black bruises and blood trickled down from his mouth. Caliborn reached up and felt for his horns, frantically grabbing the air because there was nothing there. He reached back and found that his wings had also vanished. Calliope watched him scramble frantically. 

 

"You... you awful bitch!" he shouted. "I have no magic left!" he screeched. 

Calliope held out a single pale pointer finger, holding it up to her face. She concentrated as hard as she could, and found that she could not conjure any kind of light at all. Not a bit of magic flowed through her finger tips and she felt as though she had emptied completely of any magical energy she had... actually, she felt fine. She felt more than fine, she felt hungry, and tired, and she felt surprisingly, well, human! She Calliope smiled, knowing quite instantly that Caliborn must have also been human. Her white magic had been strong enough to conquer Caliborn's black magic but it had not been enough to kill him, rather they hit each other with everything they got until it cancelled itself out and left them both magicless. Alive, but mortal. 

 

"Well, at least it's stopped you. Now if you don't mind, I have an emergency to attend with," Calliope said politely, running off in a heap of heavy breaths to find Roxy as soon as possible. Without her powers, this stuff was harder to do than to say. Calliope could not approach the scene, the police had stormed the gates, so to speak. Calliope could only sigh, helplessly. She had no means of contact, she could only listen to the idle chattering of humans, when she heard about the hospital, so to the hospital she went. 

 

"Roxy!" Calliope shouted, she ran to the hospital bedside. Roxy was half-awake, her mother Rose standing next to her. Roxy was smiling even though it hurt when Calliope hugged her tight. 

 

"You're alive!" Calliope cried. Roxy patted gently on the back. 

 

"What happened in there?" Calliope asked.

"Jake tried to shoot some kids so I stood in front of him and he shot me, then I sorta' black out but now I'm here... I'm on drugs Callie. All the stinkin' drugs..." Roxy said. 

"I have to tell you something," Calliope said with stern and sorrowful tone. She wiped the tears from her eyes with her green sleeve. 

"Yes?"

"I couldn't stop Caliborn. He made Jake go insane and shot people. He's been helping him the whole time. I couldn't kill him, I couldn't kill my brother, but I stopped him. We're both human. We cancelled out each other's magical energy and it made us human. I can't even connect to the angels anymore. I don't know where Caliborn is. I couldn't save you," Calliope admitted. That was her weakness. No matter what she did, Roxy could noth ave been saved by her hand. She could have only been saved by human medicine, which lucky for Roxy, is quite effective these days. Most gun shot wounds don't have fatal injuries and people can live just fine with part of a lung removed. 

  
"It's okay, Callie. I love you, and that is what matters," Roxy said. She embraced Calliope, despite the crushing pain her chest. Things weren't perfect, but as far as she was concerned, the only heaven Roxy would be resting in was Calliope's embrace.

 

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_Last week, an armed gun man, Jake English shot into the crowd at a speech given by Betty Crocker's CEO, Jane Crocker. Jane Crocker was unharmed, as were the other two speakers, Dave Strider and Rose Lalonde. One person was injured in the shooting, Roxy Lalonde, daughter of the author, Rose Lalonde. Roxy Lalonde received two gun shot wounds to her torso and was instantly rushed to the a nearby hospital, but is in otherwise stable condition. There were no fatalities from the shooting, and criminal charges have not yet been pressed against Jake English._

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_Pictured (left to right): Calliope, Roxy, and Rose Lalonde in the hospital._

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** _Bonus art!_ **   


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Callie and Roxy can't find produce.....

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/297/5/b/helllair_by_demonmilk-d6rnirr.jpg 

 

 

Angel Calliope

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, show of hands: Who thought Roxy died? Truth is, I have an over-tendency to kill off the main characters in my stories, I do it like, all the time. This time I didn't. I just made it seem like I did. I'm sorry, but I just love fucking with ya'll. This isn't a Disney ending, but it's not a sad one either. Callie had to give up her magical powers and Roxy had a severe lung resectioning, but I think that is what makes a more believable ending. It's not so simple as "Roxy dies, Callie gets her wings", but rather "Callie gets her wings, then loses them immediately after, but on the bright side Roxy is alive even though she is injured". I'm happy with the ending, I hope you guys are happy with the ending and that you will, uh, forgive me for the fake out and understand that I did it just to make the real ending more of a relief.
> 
> Thank you so, so much for reading this story, I had a lot of fun writing it and it was pretty challenging for me at time because I don't do romance to happy disney endings and it means a lot to get feedback when I take risks and do something that is radically different. Please make sure you check out the AO3 mirror to see the pictures that you can't see above, if you're not already there.


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